A failure to communicate

Happy New Year!

Here is a column from Drew Westen, a consultant who wrote an excellent book about the emotion of political decision-making titled The Political Brain.

This column attributes Barack Obama’s rocky first year to his inability to strike an emotional chord with most Americans.   Westin’s argument is that Obama, who built his campaign around his personal biography, has abandoned storytelling and narrative as a form of communication – a bad idea for a President or, for that matter, for marketers.

Many good thoughts in the column (and in Westen’s book) about emotions, framing, and the role of stories in shaping thought.