Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by Locke on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @02:39PM
(#442140)
I think it's fascinating how interested people are in quantitative analysis of speeches. How many times did he use the word "I". Which president said "I" the fewest times in an inauguration speech? What's the tag cloud look like.
Obama gave a beautiful speech today -- no doubt the use of language and delivery are a large part of that, but I find the beauty of his speeches is in the ideas.
Too often politicians fall back on flowery, patriotic language that lacks meaning and substance. Obama's speeches seem, to me, full of purpose and direction. They clearly communicate values, priorities, and objectives.
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by bprater on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @04:35PM
(#442336)
You have to give some points to his speech-writer magicians.
I don't know who wrote this speech, but that person is very good at getting the points across that his administration wanted the people to hear -- but could also could hear Obama speaking.
But you are right -- this will go down in history as a historic and elegant speech.
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by jimbokun on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @05:30PM
(#442399)
What I find interesting is that no single word jumps out as much as "freedom" for Bush or "government" for Reagan or "new" for Clinton. This is consistent with what you are saying, Obama is not trying to drive home a single word or concept to "brand" his Presidency, he is actually explaining where he thinks the country is and where it needs to go.
My favorite part was the line about "putting aside childish things." It was a short but powerful dig at the last two decades (at least) of partisan politics. Grow up, get past the childish name calling, and get to work on solutions to our considerable problems.
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by madh on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @02:30AM
(#442940)
Obama's most prominent word is "nation." Perhaps with the added benefit of hindsight, we can attribute more specific meaning to "nation" as we do with the terms highlighted in the previous inaugural addresses.
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by bbgm on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @07:07PM
(#442495)
That was the first thing that jumped out at me as well. One might have thought "change" would get that, but no, it was a balanced speech. Regardless of what happens in the next few years, a great start
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by froo on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:45PM
(#442756)
I stayed up til the wee hours of this morning to watch Obama's inaugural speech (It occured around 2:10am for me) and I must admit I was impressed and saddened at the same time.
Impressed that you Americans are getting a leader who is inspiring and I hope he does great things for your country (so congratulations!)
Also I was saddened, as Australian politics is in a pretty poor shape right now, which we substituted an aging Prime Minister who kept our economy in good working order for a dud PM. Shame.
Where do I sign up to work hard to help a great nation?
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by pg on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @02:01PM
(#442082)
The most striking thing to me was that he explicitly mentioned curiosity. It's not just hard to imagine Bush doing that; it's hard to imagine any recent president.
Re:Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's
by jhancock on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @01:56PM
(#442069)
Also would be interesting to use the same font and color scheme for the different clouds. I can't help but feel (just by looking at, not reading) the two clouds that the Obama one felt "warmer".
Obama gave a beautiful speech today -- no doubt the use of language and delivery are a large part of that, but I find the beauty of his speeches is in the ideas.
Too often politicians fall back on flowery, patriotic language that lacks meaning and substance. Obama's speeches seem, to me, full of purpose and direction. They clearly communicate values, priorities, and objectives.
I don't know who wrote this speech, but that person is very good at getting the points across that his administration wanted the people to hear -- but could also could hear Obama speaking.
But you are right -- this will go down in history as a historic and elegant speech.
My favorite part was the line about "putting aside childish things." It was a short but powerful dig at the last two decades (at least) of partisan politics. Grow up, get past the childish name calling, and get to work on solutions to our considerable problems.
Impressed that you Americans are getting a leader who is inspiring and I hope he does great things for your country (so congratulations!)
Also I was saddened, as Australian politics is in a pretty poor shape right now, which we substituted an aging Prime Minister who kept our economy in good working order for a dud PM. Shame.
Where do I sign up to work hard to help a great nation?
If you didn't know who was speaking and you saw 'health', 'Africa', 'AIDs', you might assume a scientist or doctor is speaking.
And sometimes art is just that, art. It resonates with you or it doesn't.
I liked that bit, as well as "We will restore science to its rightful place", and the mention of "non-believers".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/78406...