Afterthoughts #2

Drew Westen, Emory psychology professor, author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, informal advisor to the Obama campaign, and friend of mine, has a concise summary of why Obama won: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/06/westen.winning/index.html

He says that McCain was saddled from the start with 3 strikes against him: an unpopular president, an economic downturn, and an unpopular war, none of which he could really distance himself from because of his 90% support for Bush's policies.

But he also credits Obama with many positive factors that led to his win. He has an extraordinary ability to organize people and motivate them to participate. Like Bill Clinton, he has "both the general intelligence to govern and the emotional and political intelligence to win. And they finally abandoned the approach to campaigning that has been their downfall for generations: peppering voters with facts, figures, and policy positions and assuming they will see what a rational choice the candidate is."

Another comment from Drew: "What Democrats learned from this election is that if their candidate thinks like a professor but inspires like a preacher, they can have their cake and eat it, too."

Ralph