The Obama Code

George Lakoff guest posts over on fivethirtyeight.com on the values that underpin Obama's rhetorical method, identifying seven key assumptions or values:

1. Values over Programs
2. Progressive Values are American Values (e.g., compassion)
3. Biconceptualism and the New Bipartisanship
4. Protection and Empowerment
5. Morality and Economics Fit Together
6. Systemic Causation and Systemic Risk
7. Contested Concepts and Patriotic Language

He contends that one of Obama's key strengths is that if you buy the overlying rhetoric, you will implicitly buy in to the assumptions underlying it, and suggests that this approach to progressivism needs to be adopted on a larger scale to counteract the dominance of conservative voices in the media.