When Westen and his Emory colleagues conducted brain scans during the 2004 presidential campaign, they found that partisans of either side, when presented with contradictory statements by their preferred candidates, would struggle for some seconds with feelings of discomfort, then resolve the matter in their candidates' favor.
The scans showed that to do this, they used the part of their brain that controls emotion and conflict. The area that controls reasoning was inactive -- "the dead zone," Westen said.
Westen writes that it doesn't make sense to argue an issue using facts and figures and to count on voters -- particularly the swing voters who decide national elections -- to make choices based on sophisticated understandings of policy differences or procedures. He says Democratic candidates must learn to do what Republicans have understood for many years -- they must appeal to emotions. And (talking to you, Mr. Gore) stay away from numbing statistics.
"This is the best thing I have read in 30 years," said Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the liberal American Prospect magazine, and the man most responsible for Westen's rise. "This is the book that should have been written a long time ago on why Democrats blow winnable elections. Even when public opinion is on their side, they don't know how to optimize that."
Kuttner learned of Westen last year from mutual friends while Westen was still working on his manuscript. Westen sent Kuttner a few chapters, and the magazine editor flipped. "I told him, 'Fasten your seat belt; you're going to be a rock star,' " Kuttner said.
It has been, Westen admitted, the sort of wild ride an academic like him usually only dreams about.
Kuttner organized gatherings -- in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Berkeley -- to introduce Westen to influential Democrats. The first took place in September in Washington.
Guy Molyneux, a pollster with Hart Research Associates, was there, and recalled being impressed but not bowled over. "He says a candidate should be authentic but also speak to these more emotional concerns, and I don't know if Drew fully appreciates the extent to which that advice may conflict," Molyneux said. "If your candidate is a policy wonk" -- like Al Gore -- "to some extent that's going to come through to voters."
After hearing Westen speak at Stanley Sheinbaum's Brentwood home at an American Prospect event, Democratic activists and donors Jamie McGurk (wife of former MGM honcho Chris McGurk) and Victoria Hopper (wife of actor Dennis Hopper) adopted him.
