Prometheus 6

So, Sen. Obama is no longer the presumptuous nominee (that's a Freudian construction...). And everyone has all this advice about what he must say tonight. Prove he's a regular guy. Make the case that his programs are what America needs. Stuff like that.

Quite reasonable sounding...but let us not forget, this is a pep rally right now. Understand that and you'll understand why Obama wants to rev up 70,000 people.

People tend to do what they see other folks doing. Call it peer pressure, call it in-group norms, whatever. It is a physical fact that the best way to get someone to do something is to get the guy next to him to do it. And that sounds like an infinite regression but it's not because it can be seeded by convinced thinkers. If there were a way to poll just them, Obama would have a higher percentage of them than of Black folk.

More, though I suspect there's some pheromonal impact you miss, watching folks on TV is almost as good as watching them as they stand next to you.