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When Art Directors Take Sides

Check out the photos chosen for an article in Business Insider today. On the left, we have Clinton in full-scold mode. I’m sure a better Clinton photo exists. 

On the right, we see the best photo of Trump in the past five years. His hair is evolving to something less wild, and less orange. (His campaign is managing his evolving look, I assume.) And even his tan looks better than usual. He has a fun grin too.

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The Sanders Debate Gambit

Last night Donald Trump appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and said he would debate Bernie Sanders so long as the profits from the debate go to charity. Sanders quickly agreed via Twitter. There’s your headline for a few days, or more.

Let me tell you how clever that was.

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Citizen Government

Slander is illegal, but hard to prove. And if you lose your case in court, it can be super-expensive. You’ll end up paying your own court fees and those of your opponent. In other words, the government can’t help you if someone slanders you in public. You’re sort of on your own.

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The Mark Cuban Factor

Mark Cuban has hilariously inserted himself into the presidential race. In one of the most canny moves of our age, he suggested he was open to being VP on either Trump’s or Clinton’s team, as long as they changed to agree with him.

And that won’t happen. Can’t have the tail wagging the dog. So Cuban is out of the picture for anyone’s VP choice. But it sure makes good TV.

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Battle of the Campaign Slogans

Hillary Clinton rolled out a new campaign slogan this weekend: “We’re stronger together.” And by new slogan, I mean it is the same as a recent Estee Lauder ad campaign slogan. But Trump borrowed from Reagan with his “Make America Great Again” slogan, so let’s score it a tie in terms of originality.

Now let’s see how the slogans compare in terms of persuasion. I’ll start with Trump’s slogan first, then look at Clinton’s new offering.

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Dilbert by Jake Tapper?

If you’re wondering why Dilbert looks different today, it’s because I asked CNN anchor and host Jake Tapper to be my guest artist for the week of 5/23/16. I wrote six daily comics for the week and Jake did the art. You can see them on the home page starting with the first one today.

Jake suggested auctioning the framed original art on eBay to raise money for Homes for our Troops, and that sounded great to me. HFOT is an organization that builds mortgage-free, specially designed homes for disabled veterans. You can bid for the originals on eBay here. Please do. It’s a great cause.

See more details about how it came about here.

I hope you like the change-of-pace this week. My only complaint is that Jake’s a better artist than me. Do me a favor and don’t notice that part.

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My Podcast with Thor (About Trump’s Persuasion)

I don’t mean Thor of the big hammer. This Thor uses a microphone (@ThorHolt). You can consume it three ways.

iTunes - ’Persuade Like Trump’ from @thorholt host of ‘Write With Courage!’ @writewthcourage 

Stitcher -   ’Persuade Like Trump’ from @thorholt host of 'Write With Courage!’ @writewthcourage 

Libsyn - ‘Persuade Like Trump

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Being Memorable

See this article in FastCompany about how to be memorable, and note how many of the tips apply to Donald Trump. You can’t be a persuader until you are memorable. Most of the persuading happens after the persuasion trigger event, when people replay the memory in their minds.

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Evaluating the Political Chess Board

Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton nationally in both the new FOX poll and the Rasmussen Poll. And Trump passed Clinton in favorability according to the newest national poll on that topic. The Megyn Kelly interview (including the hyping of it ahead of time) marked Trump’s third-act turn.

By the way, Anderson Cooper of CNN said last night that CNN finds the FOX polling to be reliable and transparent, in case you wondered.

Meanwhile, Clinton is losing one primary after another to a dehydrated dandelion in her own party. That doesn’t bode well for the coming cage fight with Godzilla.

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“Excuse me”

Last night I watched Megyn Kelly’s much-anticipated interview with Donald Trump. Here are my quick reactions in terms of persuasion.

Megyn Kelly was the big winner for the night. Her new show probably had strong ratings and it was well-timed to promote her book release.  She also did a great job of connecting with Trump on a personal level. And kudos on her style decisions – the red dress was perfect. You rarely see someone make a whole barrel of lemonade from one lemon, but Kelly is pulling it off. Impressive.

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