Listening to Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain, one of my favorite political writers. He does message strategy, and is one of the few people in this business speaking common sense.
The political brain
3 thoughts on “The political brain”
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It’s not a messaging problem. It’s a performance problem. And I don’t mean kabuki-style theatrical performance.
Westen helped the Obama campaign win the election by teaching them how to use the words and images to trigger off voting behavior in Obama’s favor. He is a specialist in neuromarketing, the science of how to sell products by bypassing rational conscious decision making and triggering impulses directly with symbols.
This is a very important factor in how we ended up with a president whose behavior in office is completely disconnected from the rhetoric remembered from the campaign. Obama, as you recall, was very careful not to say anything that committed him to a specific act or policy. He just made you feel like he did. I am sure Westen thought that Obama really believed in the ideals that the rhetoric made people thought he was committed to.
From some of the things I have seen Westen writing lately, I think that he regrets helping Obama get elected when there is no sign that Obama is the man Westen believed him to be. He reminds me a little bit of J Robert Oppenheimer in his remorse over his part in building the atomic bombs. He had been so caught up in the drama and excitement of the bomb project that he forgot to think about what he was really doing.
Link to Westen’s marketing consulting company:
http://thinkscanlive.com/home.html