McCain’s Brain vs. Obama’s Brain

With a month left before the election, the only thing left to debate is…the candidates’ metacognitive abilities. Take it away, Jonah Lehrer: “The election … isn't merely a contest between two political ideologies,” Lehrer writes in the Boston Globe. “The two candidates also represent distinct cognitive styles.” You have McCain’s emotional and instinctive judgments on one hand, and Obama’s deliberative method on the other. Lehrer argues that a better-equipped candidate is less obsessed with the decisions he makes (coming out against the war, coming out for the surge) than studying the thinking that went into the decisions.