Miffy Chengthomas

Honorary Advisory Board Member: Dr. Frank Luntz

Screen-Shot-2020-09-17-at-1.50.20-PM.png
[Frank shows off the replica Oval Office he built in his home to the Hollywood Reporter.]

[Frank shows off the replica Oval Office he built in his home to the Hollywood Reporter.]

Sir David Frost called him “The Nostradamus of pollsters,” while Time magazine named him one of “50 of America’s most promising leaders aged 40 and under,” and Newsweek magazine identified him as No. 24 on their American Power Elite survey. He finished 87th in a Time magazine global poll of the “most influential people in the world.”  Yes, we’re talking about Frank Luntz, one of the most highly regarded communication professionals in America today. 

Widely considered a messaging master, Luntz is probably best known for his work conducting and analyzing focus groups, polls, surveys, and dial sessions, which he used to create his lists of “words to “use” and “words to lose” in political messaging. Thanks to his experience with the voting public, he won The Washington Post’s coveted “Crystal Ball” award for being the most accurate pundit. 


He has served as an election consultant and political pundit in more than two dozen countries, and his focus groups have become so influential that, following the PBS presidential debate, Barack Obama declared, “When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group.” 

[Frank conducting a focus group during the 2016 Presidential election]

[Frank conducting a focus group during the 2016 Presidential election]


Media outlets routinely turn to Luntz for to understand the hopes and fears of Americans. His “instant response” focus group technique has been profiled on many shows, including 60 Minutes, and PBS’s Frontline. He has been a guest on virtually every talk show in America, including multiple appearances on Meet the Press, Nightline, The Today Show, Face the Nation, and Bill Maher. For more than a decade, Luntz was the “Focus Group Czar” for Fox News. 


One of four “Top Research Minds”...”the hottest pollster”... “pollster extraordinaire”...”the person you turn to for the truth”


Luntz is renowned for his ability to understand, explain, and communicate with the American public, particularly for his talent at developing effective talking points and messaging crafted to turn public opinion. From coining the phrase “tax relief” to emphasising positive terms like “energy efficiency’ over negative ones like “energy conservation” he has affected many political and policy issues by reframing the debate in terms that appeal to voters and the general public.

[Frank runs a focus group on 60 Minutes in 2016]

[Frank runs a focus group on 60 Minutes in 2016]

[Frank runs a socially distanced focus group, discussing the Presidential debate in 2020]

[Frank runs a socially distanced focus group, discussing the Presidential debate in 2020]

The increasingly divisive political atmosphere in recent years has inspired a change of heart in Luntz, who has moved away from partisan identification.

In 2019, he offered his messaging services to aid the cause for climate action, openly admitting that he considers his early position on climate change wrong. He promised to help the Democrats on the Senate climate committee, on the condition that they committed to nonpartisan solutions.  

“It doesn’t matter what you say, it only matters what people hear.” - Frank Luntz

[Frank runs a focus group with Muslim Americans for CBS This Morning]

[Frank runs a focus group with Muslim Americans for CBS This Morning]

Luntz earned distinction from an early age.  He was awarded the Thouron Fellowship and received his doctorate from Oxford University at the age of 25, after which he was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He also taught courses at Harvard University and George Washington University. Since 2018, he has taught two courses a year at NYU Abu Dhabi, and in 2021 is visiting professor for USC. 

In both 2011 and 2015, Luntz was the only non-journalist invited to host a debate of the GOP presidential contenders.  He also served for five years as a news analyst for CBS News, focusing on corporate and business communications, moving to ABC News in 2017.  He was a consultant to the NBC hit show The West Wing as well as the popular CBS drama Bull.    

[Frank runs a focus group with Muslim Americans for CBS This Morning]

[Frank runs a focus group with Muslim Americans for CBS This Morning]

Luntz is the author of three New York Times best sellers. Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say it’s What People Hear, explores the art and science of language creation.  His second book, What Americans Really Want … Really, addresses the private hopes, dreams and fears of the American people; it reached No. 18 on the bestseller list.  His most recent book, WIN, discusses how to use language to succeed in different aspects of everyday life, it reached No. 3 on The New York Times Business Best Seller List in its first month in print.  He has written about the power of language for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, The Times of London, The Washington Post, and Time.  

51dTwAcSBqL.jpg
51f2Mq0eACL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_ML2_.jpg
51n09bOf15L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Sidney Blumenthal

blog_zuma_sidney_blumenthal.jpg

Sidney Blumenthal

Journalist, Activist, Writer & Political Aide

Sidney Stone Blumenthal is an American journalist, activist, writer, and political aide.

He is a former aide to President Bill Clinton; a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton, formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation; and a journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy. Blumenthal is also the author of a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Two books of the planned four-volume series are available now: A Self-Made Man and Wrestling With His Angel. Subsequent volumes were planned for 2018 and 2019.

Blumenthal has written for several publications, including the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker, and was Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Salon.com, for which he has written over 1800 pieces online. He is a regular contributor to openDemocracy.net and was a regular columnist for The Guardian. After 2000, he published several essays critical of the administration of President George W. Bush.

Blumenthal was a key speaker at our The Rise of Lincoln & US Divisions discussion event with co-speaker John Avlon on September 24, 2019.

Jehane Noujaim

untitled.jpg

Jehane Noujaim

Director

Jehane Noujaim is an Academy Award nominated director and one of two non-fiction directors to have won the Directors Guild Award twice. Her Oscar nominated film, The Square (2013), won the Audience Award both at Sundance and Toronto. Noujaim has produced and directed other award-winning films including Rafea: Solar Mama (2013), Control Room (2004) and Startup.com (2001). In 2006, Noujaim was awarded the TED prize which she used to create Pangea Day. Noujaim’s work has been nominated by the DGA, IDA, Independent Spirit and several Critics Association Awards. Noujaim’s most recent release was an animated feature, The Breadwinner (2017) which she executive produced with Angelina Jolie and which was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award.

Twitter:@JehaneNoujaim

Brittany Kaiser

unnamed.jpg

Brittany Kaiser

Cambridge Analytica Whistle-Blower, Data Rights Advocate,

Brittany Kaiser is a former business development director for Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica collapsed after details of its misuse of Facebook data were revealed to have potentially impacted voting in the U.K and the U.S.. Kaiser testified about her involvement in the work of Cambridge Analytica before the U.K. Parliament and the Mueller Investigation.

She graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 2005 then went on to study at the University of Edinburgh, the City University of Hong Kong, the University of London’s Birkbeck College, and earned certificates of study at the World Bank Institute and US Institute of Peace. She later obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Middlesex University.

While she was studying in Scotland, Kaiser took time off to work on Barack Obama's media team during his presidential campaign in 2007. She also worked for Amnesty International as a lobbyist.

Between February 2015 and January 2018, Kaiser worked full time for the SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, as director of business development. During her time at Cambridge Analytica, Kaiser worked under senior management, including CEO Alexander Nix. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Kaiser fled to Thailand. She later testified before the British Parliament about Cambridge Analytica and privacy threats posed by Facebook.

Kaiser is the subject of a Netflix documentary titled The Great Hack, which is about her work with Cambridge Analytica.

In April 2018, Kaiser started a Facebook campaign appealing for transparency, called #OwnYourData, and co-founded the Digital Asset Trade Association: a non-profit which works to lobby the legislature. In August 2019, she started the Own Your Data Foundation.

Kaiser's memoir, Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again, will be published by Harper in October 2019.

Michael Wolff

Glasser-Michael-Wolff-on-How-Washington-Will-Defeat-Trump.jpg

Michael Wolff

American author

Michael Wolffe is an American journalist, author, columnist and internet entrepreneur. He’s the founder of the news aggregation website ‘Newser’. His books include Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (2018) and Burn rate: How I survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet (1998). He’s written columns for publications like The Hollywood Reporter and USA Today. Wolf was born on August 27, 1953 in Paterson, New Jersey. His father, Lewis, worked in advertising, while his mother, Marguerite, worked as a newspaper reporter. He attended Vassar College followed by Columbia University.

Wolff started out as a copy boy for The New York Times. His first article was published in Time magazine in 1974. It was a profile of Angela Atwood, one of the founding member of the Symbioses Liberation Army. Wolff later became a contributing writer for the news magazine ‘New Times’. The company ceased publication in 1979. Wolff released his first book ‘ White Kids’ in 1979. It was a collection of essays.

Wolff joined the management team at ‘Campaigns and Elections’ in 1988. Campaigns and Elections is a trade magazine based in Arlington, Virginia. Their areas of focus include political campaigns and political consulting. During his tenure, Wolff gave advise to the start-up magazine ‘Wired’. His book-packaging company ‘Michael Wolff & Company, Inc.’ was founded in 1991. Their early projects include the books ‘Where We Stand’ and ‘Net Guide’. The company attracted a handful of venture capital investment in 1995. It venture collapsed two years later and Wolff was ejected from the company.

Wolff’s first best seller ‘Burn Rate’ was published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster. He wrote a biography of Rupert Murdoch titled ‘The Man Who Owns the News (2006). His other published works include ‘Autumn of the Moguls’ (2003), ‘Television is the New Television’ (2015) and ‘Fire and Fury’ (2018). In addition to books, Wolff us a columnist editor of ‘Adweek’. He’s also written for The Industry Standard, Vanity Fair, USA Today and GQ (UK). Wolff launched the news aggregation website ‘Newser’ in 207. Their key staff include Patrick Spain (CEO), Kate Seamons (president), and Evan Gastaldo (Managing Editor).

Read more about the event

Twitter: @MichaelWolffNYC

Seth Moulton

0211_moulton-01-1000x651+%281%29.jpg

Seth Moulton

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts

Seth Moulton is a father, husband, Iraq War Veteran, and Congressman. He now serves the 6th District of Massachusetts, with an office just ten minutes from where he grew up, but he first began serving our country when he was 22.

It was the minister at his college church at Harvard who inspired Seth to serve. “It’s not enough to just support those who serve,” Rev Peter Gomes said, “You have to go out and do something yourself.” That advice resonated with Seth, and he decided to join the Marines.

9/11 happened a few months after his graduation, and little more than a year later, Seth was an infantry platoon commander in the first company of Marines to enter Baghdad in 2003. Despite his disagreements with the war, he insisted on returning for a total of four combat deployments so nobody would have to go in his place.

Seth went to business school on the GI Bill and worked in the private sector in Texas building the country’s first high-speed railway, but missed the sense of purpose he had in the Marines. Serving in Iraq with some of the best Americans he has ever met—while feeling let down and left behind by the politicians in Washington who sent them there—inspired Seth to run for Congress in 2014. He took on a nine-term incumbent backed by the party establishment, calling for a new generation of leadership in Congress, and overcame a 54-point deficit to win. He’s been keeping the promises of that campaign ever since.

In just three short terms in Congress, Seth has worked tirelessly to guarantee good-paying jobs for hard-working people—helping revitalize the biggest city in his district, the old factory city of Lynn, by organizing state and local leaders of all backgrounds. He’s become a leading voice on foreign policy and national security, serving on the Armed Services Committee and holding the Pentagon accountable while introducing bills to transform our national defense and combat foreign influence in America’s elections. And determined to lead by example, he held more town hall meetings in the 114th Congress than any other Democrat in the House or Senate—making sure that the voices of his constituents would be heard in Washington. He’s also fought for veterans health care while upholding his promise to continue getting his own care at the VA.

After the election in 2016, Seth recognized that America needs leaders who have faced challenges more difficult than losing an election or standing up to President Trump. So he used his organization, Serve America, to help change Washington by electing more service-driven leaders to Congress. Seth and his team mentored the candidates, raised millions of dollars for them, and campaigned alongside them in tough, Republican-held districts across the country. On election night, that hard work paid off: twenty-one of Serve America’s candidates won, accounting for half of all Democratic pickups in the House and flipping districts that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.

Seth lives in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife, Liz, and his daughter, Emmy.

Congressman Seth Moulton was hosted by The Common Good as part of our 2020 Presidential Candidates Series on July 29, 2019 where spoke on on his experience as a veteran of the Iraq War as well as a Congressman. He also addressed any questions concerning him running for president.

Twitter: @sethmoulton