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In eight national addresses, the story of a historic presidency

This post was originally published on Bloomberg Politics on January 13, 2016. Seven years ago, newly elected President Barack Obama addressed lawmakers in the shadow of a devastating economic crisis but buoyed by the promise of change he’d campaigned on. On Tuesday night, Obama returned to the same podium for his final State of the Union address, with an economy in much better shape but…

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Analytics say: Head-to-head with Rubio, Cruz’s language fails to build trust

Last weekend’s political polls unveiled a surprise adjustment to GOP candidates’ standings: Ted Cruz’s favor among Republican voters has skyrocketed. CNN’s poll lists him in second place, with 22% support just short of Trump’s 27%. But he’s taken the lead in Iowa, with the Des Moines Register reporting Cruz is the favorite among 31% of…

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Deconstructing Carson’s nose dive

According to the December 2015 CNN/ORC Poll, Ben Carson has dropped a hefty eight points since the mid-October poll, and there are plenty of theories out there for the downturn in his polling numbers. One theory is that the drop is due to questions about the accuracy of his biography (Politico). Others have suggested that…

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Should companies abandon prepared remarks on earnings calls?

There is an ongoing debate over whether companies should offer prepared remarks during quarterly earnings calls. In our experience working with S&P 500 investor relations teams, we have seen a variety of approaches to structuring earnings calls. Some companies such as Netflix, Progressive and Tesla have chosen to pivot away from prepared remarks entirely, an…

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Trust us – We’re the government

A comparison of crisis communications in corporate America vs. the U.S. government Hours after posting our crisis communications analysis on Theranos, I received a letter from the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) indicating I was one of 21.5M people whose personal information was lost in a security breach. There were many other companies…

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Want investors to fall in love with your CFO?

Fortune recently noted that investors and analysts alike have praised Alphabet’s CFO, Ruth Porat, for her performance on the newly formed holding company’s first earnings call. What about her style made her performance so notable? And what traits could other CFOs use to help them have even better discussions with their investors and analysts?

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GOP Debate by the numbers: no clear winner as issues take center stage

With 60 percent more policy-driven language, Republicans find their voice on the issues (and against the media) After September’s marathon debate melee, the ten top GOP candidates jumped back into the ring last night for a rematch. We used our language analytics platform to look at the content of the debate and found that, at…

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