Obama: Go on Offense

摘要

Nobody is saying american voters are crazy, just that we are not especially rational. When reason and emotion collide, we go with our gut—roughly four out of five times. That is the core message from "The Political Brain," a recently published book by Drew Westen, a clinical psychologist at Emory University. Westen is one of a small group of liberal social scientists who believe they may hold the key to the Democratic Party's future. Democrats,they say, must do what Republicans have excelled at: appealing to people's prejudices and hearts instead of their brains. That insight may be particularly important this political season, when Barack Obama's skin color makes it impossible for him to avoid talk of race and John Edwards has chosen to define himself largely by issues of class.