I saw this this morning on CNN and found it very interesting. I have been trying to put my finger on just what it is about Obama that has such broad appeal and why we need to stop telling him how to run his campaign. Follow me below the fold for the study proving Obama is a freaking genius.
Sorry, I forgot to turn on closed captioning, ARRGH! Anyway, the study was for looking at differences between liberals and conservatives, to see if there is more to the choices we make politically. As it turns out jarring, shocking photos of say Bin Laden get no reaction or a slower reaction from liberals and a very immediate startling response from self identified conservatives. This would suggest a genetic component to what may draw us to one party over another, perhaps 40%. The other 60% would be life experiences, candidate policies etc. The really important to all of this is Obama's personality, he is an inspiring speaker, yes. But he is more than that, he is a SOOTHING speaker, he speaks of solutions not so much the horror that will follow if we don't make the right choices now. He isn't using fear to motivate people. He isn't having screaming matches with McCain. He has a real chance to get to conservative voters.
As an unscientific aside. My grandson Gabriel hates loud noises, he so far is voting for McCain, because he is old and funny. (Every time he sees him, he points, says "he's old" and laughs and laughs and laughs.) Now, he may eventually go to Obama, he has a terrific crush on Sasha, but that's not the way to pick a president either, altho Gabriel's father is a county delegate and will take the conversion however he can get it. Talk about embarrassing!