When John Sununu opens his mouth, the resulting words are typically vile or stupid. In his MSNBC interview today, Sununu repeated the claim that President Obama, despite being a "nice guy," wouldn't be fit to run a lemonade stand. Ignoring the obvious absurdness of claiming that an Ivy League-educated professional couldn't run a child's business, Sununu misses a bigger point about human brain function.
Sununu attempted to dissuade listeners on the importance of "likeability" in a candidate. He stated a belief that people care about a plan - not about a man. This statement exudes tremendous ignorance about how the human mind works and underlies why Mitt Romney will lose to Barack Obama in November.
In order to understand, one must only watch Simon Sinek's well-distributed TED talk on how great leaders inspire action.
Sinek's talk repeats one central theme and outlines certain elements of brain psychology. That theme:
People don't what you do. They buy why you do it.
Sinek describes the compartmental nature of the human brain. The rational portion of the brain is the neocortex. This is the part of the brain that processes data - facts and information - about a certain product. It is not, however, the portion of the brain that drives behavior. That part of the brain is driven by emotion. It's the part of the brain where people hold their beliefs. When this portion of the brain is motivated, human beings can powerfully rationalize any set of facts.
Sinek uses Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example of a leader who motivated the central part of the brain.
And by the way, he gave the 'I have a dream' speech, not the 'I have a plan' speech.
The President motivates the emotional portion of the brain. People trust him. His words motivate the electorate. This is ultimately what drives behavior.
John Sununu wishes that the human voter's brain worked in reverse. He wishes that Mitt Romney's "likeability" problem was a small thing. But it's not. America doesn't trust Mitt Romeny. The majority of Americans are not motivated by Mitt Romney's core. Romney has gone to great links to hide what he believes, opting instead for what he will do. This is a painfully ill-fated appeal to the rational part of the mind. In effect, he has taken the opposite approach to President Obama's wildly successful 2008 campaign. When Obama campaigned, he struck on emotional themes. His easy personality and natural humor struck at the core of the American voter. From there, they rationalized his ideas. Romney has chosen an alternative approach because he had no other choice. Without the ability to motivate the behavioral element of the brain, Romney's stuck with hoping that his often inaccurate appeals to rationality will succeed where most others have failed.