Doug Mills/The New York TimesOur friends at speechwars.com have put together a really fun tool to help you mine their database of the full text of all State of the Union Addresses (even though this wasn’t technically such an address) as well as inaugurals. It’s a fun way of tracking which issues have occupied the minds of our leaders. The brains behind Speech Wars, Ben Reis, just sent me his lightning analysis of last night’s speech:
– Obama is the first president in history to use the words “bailouts,” “laundry,” “drapes,” “cyber,” “messes,” and “pandemic” in a State of the Union address.
– Obama used the word “crisis” 11 times — more than twice as much as any other president. Hoover used it only four times in 1932 during the Great Depression.
– Obama said “layoffs,” “invest,” and “entrepreneurs” more than any other president.
– Obama is only the second president to use the words “ferret,” “biofuels,” and “hybrids.”
and 
. You can also watch it on 
#2 “… George Washington mentioned “women” only one time in 1795. Then, no president mentioned “women” until Lincoln in 1861.” – Lisa
Lisa…chill. This “evidence” rests upon shakey ground. The presidents did not really give speeches in front of congress until the modern era. And Indeed LOTS of mentions of women, women’s issues, etc were written about extensively by presidents. All these guys have giant piles of papers. Where did they find the time…?
True, the word “women” seems to be scarce in delivered speeches (of which there are relatively few), but politics was strictly a man’s prerogative until long after Lincoln. Many other words are scarce too. This does not mean much.
Get over it. Please.
See: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php
Obama has never given a State of the Union address.
Wait a minute… last night was State of the Union? I thought it was a session in which the President addressed Congress!
I’m so confused, on account of being Canadian, I guess..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_union
“Sometimes, especially in recent years, newly inaugurated presidents have delivered speeches to joint sessions of Congress only weeks into their respective terms, but these are not officially considered State of the Union addresses. The address is most frequently used to outline the president’s legislative proposals for the upcoming year.”
…
“Since 1989, in recognition that the responsibility of reporting the State of the Union formally belongs to the president who held office during the past year, newly inaugurated Presidents have not officially called their first speech before Congress a “State of the Union” message.”
Still, these first-year-of-first-term speeches are still considered by the public as informal State of the Union addresses, since if it was a president were entering his or her second term, they would be giving an official state of the union address that night.
- Lisa
I find it interesting (but not surprising) that the score is:
love – 89
war – 2,757
also
accountability – 29
responsibility – 463
and not to be left off
defend – 120
attack – 214
re: #3
Talk *is* cheap. (So are transcripts, I imagine.) What you’d suggest would take way way way more manpower than some text banks and a few lines of code.
“Love” being an intangible emotion that doesn’t say anything concrete about government and “war” being something we have to face that is universally considered to be negative, I think I feel safer with a president talking about “war.” Realism > demagogue.
Also, using the word more doesn’t mean they’re considered better. I’m sure the average doctor uses the word “cancer” a lot more than the word “generocity.” Or the average pacifist says “war” a lot more than most people >_>
I think it’s indicative of our concrete-bound culture that we’re somehow analyzing what words he used and not what he actually said…