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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama's Second Inaugural by the numbers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/21/president-obamas-second-inaugural-address-by-the-numbers/2,114 The number of words the president used. He used 2404 in 2009.
18.5 The number of minutes Obama spoke. The president started his address about 11:53 a.m. and ended at 12:12 p.m.
Lincoln's second was 703 words and took 7-8 minutes to deliver.
Some interesting word comparisons:
Lincoln's Frequency: 11 war; 8 God (including Divine, God's, Lord); 4 union; 3 interest; 3 offenses; 3 right; 3 woe; 3 slaves or slavery; 2 conflict or war-seeking
There are other key words, but that gives a general sense.
Obama's Frequency (again, there may be synonyms or variants not included):
11 people; 10 time; 7 together; 7 American (4 Americans) (5 America); 6 citizens; 6 journey;
(country, equal, freedom, occur 6 times, but some of that is in the context of quotes)
6 believe or belief (1 faith); 5 creed; 5 liberty; 4 future generation; 4 God (1 authority - context?); 3 peace; 3 principles; 2 duty; 2 rights; 2 justice (responsibility or responsibly 2)
Of course, there are others, and the context matters, but I find this of interest. (No, I didn't count them; I used a program.)
In both cases there is a strong spiritual (I prefer that word to "religious" here, because in both the implication is either non-sectarian or an American faith) element, and a strong emphasis on "union" or "together" or "people" - terms meant to be synonymous I think. Also, while Lincoln's resolves the past, Obama's is a resolve for the future - appropriately, based on context and thus word choice.
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Obama's Second Inaugural by the numbers (Original Post)
garthranzz
Jan 2013
OP
quinnox
(20,600 posts)1. in other words, they all seem to say basically the same shit
in those inauguration speeches. Glad I skipped it.
66 dmhlt
(1,941 posts)2. Tomorrow morning try getting up on the OTHER side of the bed ...
quinnox
(20,600 posts)4. actually I'm in a good mood today
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)3. I'm glad you skipped it too.