Memory and Rationality - Implications for Obama?

This past Tuesday morning, I was listening to NPR's "Morning Edition" show during their "RadioLab" segment; the topic was "Willpower and the "Slacker" Brain".

Test subjects were given either a 2-digit or 7-digit number, and told to go down the hall to another room.  On the way, the subjects were interrupted and offered food: fruit or cake.  Subjects with 2-digit numbers almost always chose fruit, and those with 7-digit numbers almost always chose cake.

To summarize, human brains have a rational, deliberative system and an emotional, unconscious system, which can be and are in conflict.  When short-term memory is not taxed, rational decisions are more probable (fruit is healthier than cake...I'll eat fruit).  Of course, the inverse is true...when short-term memory IS taxed, an emotional response is more likely (cake sure is tasty...).

It is, therefore, VERY easy to have emotion win out over reason; simply offer sufficient complexity, and a human will respond emotionally; it just takes 5 more numbers.  Witness our evolutionary legacy in action.

We now leave the realm of neuroscience and enter the world of politics...

I have been very critical of President Obama over the past year, online with bloggers at other sites, and in person with friends and co-workers.  My complaints are two-fold:  President Obama is insufficiently Machievellian, and his message is too complex.

After watching the State of the Union last night, I've decided that Machievelli is simply NOT in the President's portfolio of personality traits.  The President is not only a Constitutional scholar and former legislator...but an almost supernaturally cool/nice guy, who seems to really believe in the non-overlapping magisteria of the 3 branches of government.

HOWEVER...as President, he IS responsible for propogating his message.  Health Care Reform is rewarding, honorable...and complex and confusing.  The onus is on the President to convey to a busy, concerned and preoccupied public the long-term benefits, both to the public and our fiscal health.

A great person once said, "Simplicity is the Essense of Beauty and Elegance."  In all things, as well as in politics, nothing could be truer.