Matthew Dowd

Anyone wondering what that "values" buzz after the 2004 election was about, and what it means for business and politics, will find solid answers in Dowd's presentation. One of the masterminds behind the victorious 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign and a senior Associated Press political correspondent, Dowd helps twenty-first-century American leaders think anew about the people they serve-a people that, despite an increasingly diverse society, seem to be seeking more consistency in their lifestyle choices, from choosing a familiar item on a menu to voting for a President. Drawing on interviews with the middle class, commuting residents who eat at Applebee's restaurants (relating the Democrats who voted for Bush based on "gut instinct" with the customers who consider Applebee's their "home away from home"), as well as his own inside knowledge, Dowd discusses the demographic, commercial, and political patterns that develop across the greater part of the American spectrum.