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What matters most in politics – facts and logic, or stories and feelings? Drew Westen says it’s emotion that counts – and shows how Bill Clinton and George W Bush understood this, while John Kerry and Al Gore never got it. Here we print extracts from his new book, The Political Brain – which is essential summer reading from Washington to Westminster….

…The vision of the mind that has captured the imagination of philosophers, cognitive scientists, economists and political scientists since the 18th century – a dispassionate mind that makes decisions by weighing the evidence and reasoning to the most valid conclusions – bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work.

A longish but highly illuminating read, especially if you have ever wondered how any of these people ever get elected in the first place.

There are two excerpts from the book. Scroll to the bottom of the first page to find the link to the second.