Just read a really interesting Q&A with Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University and the head of a political and corporate consulting firm, Westen Strategies. He’s also the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation,” and it seems he feels Barack Obama’s string of successes are testament to Obama’s ability to capture voters’ hearts. Some highlights:
This has been like an election between Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton. She’s all issues all the time, encyclopedic in her knowledge and would no doubt be as competent a president as we’ve ever had. But Obama has the natural gifts that her husband has — to make people feel that they’re part of something bigger than them. He has that rare combination of what psychologists call “general intelligence,” i.e., to think quickly and complexly, as well as the raw emotional and political intelligence that predicts success at the ballot box.
I had never noticed that – Obama’s likeness to Bill Clinton.
Q: She tried to define Obama, saying that he lacked experience and that his oratory was “just words.”
A: And if he were a less charismatic speaker, those stories may have worked. But once Obama got on his game, I don’t think he was beatable by anybody.
Criticism does exist – this Facebook group entitled “Every clueless person I know likes Obama” amassed an impressive gallery of anti-Obama political cartoons, for example. People worry that Barack is all talk, but it feels sort of nice to hear the Mr. Rogers-style affirmation “Yes, we can,” over and over again, doesn’t it? It’s a clever slogan on Senator Obama’s part, because how does one argue with it?
Senator Clinton: Actually, no, we can’t.
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