NYT - a bubble diagram of the words used at BOTH Conventions

[FirstLight]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/us/politics/20080905_WORDS_GRAPHIC.html

this is too cool, it even breaks it down by speaker o we can see who addressed the issues, vs who spoke of nothing with substance...

check it out!

[Union Thug]

1. I love that LIEberman is identified as a Republican.

Cool layout. Thx for passing it along.

[Lucinda]

2. Really interesting! Thanks for the post!

[malaise]

3. So the Bushies mentioned Bush once

:rofl:

[live love laugh]

6. Amazing. nt

[JBoy]

13. Actually, I think it was "the President", not "Bush"

McCain thanked "the President". Couldn't bring himself to say "Bush".

[progressivebydesign]

4. Excellent! But I wish they had included "middle class" and "housing" n/t

[live love laugh]

8. The fact that they didn't begs the question as to whether they selectively chose these words...

while leaving others out. Middle class would have certainly been "up there" if they were simply counting.

[October]

5. Wish they'd included "opponent"

The republicans hardly used Obama's name.

[IndyOp]

7. What the hell words did the Republicans use?

The Republicans really were doing a "personality presentation" rather than discussing issues based on this illustration. The NYT counted words they expected to hear (God, taxes...) or thought that people would want to hear about (health care...) and it is clear that the Democrats talked about those issues far more often than did Republicans.

Republican = 364 references to words in the NYT chart
Democrats = 535 references to words in the NYT chart

Now I want to see a word cloud showing the actual words in their speeches because I want to know what words they really did use most often.

[FirstLight]

9. I agree!

So...maybe we have some homework to do, because NYT won't take this to the next level...

My suggestion is to copy/paste the transcripts of the speeches into Word, do a word search...run a tally, and then we can get down to the nitty gritty!

If I had more incentive I'd be on it...anyone got some time to kill?



funny -Joe Biden nailed it yesterday when he ripped them over not mentioning the middle class once!

"Their silence on the isuess was deafening"

[nuxvomica]

14. Try this word density counter

http://www.addme.com/wordcount.htm

[Wednesdays]

15. Here ya go

http://wordle.net/

Just go to "create" and copy & paste their speeches...you can adjust the parameters, etc. Someone did one of Obama's speech the same night he delivered it, and it was really cool.

[rcsl1998]

10. K&R

[Iris]

11. I love seeing things broken out this way.

A lot of people absorb info. better through pictures and diagrams. Nice post.

[jimshoes]

12. Didn't hear St. Ronnie mentioned much either.

[a la izquierda]

16. Ghouliani only said 9-11 once?

How long did the speech last? 30 seconds. :rofl:

[crickets]

17. "Four more years" - Republicans: 0

:rofl: Not surprising.

I do think they left out some other words that should have been included--words like lobbyists, middle class, mortgages, veterans, social security, Constitution...

[Straight Shooter]

18. Interesting how often Palin used the word "reform."

Makes it crystal clear that the GOP is attempting to project her character as being that of a reformer. She isn't. She's a reactionary. Reactionaries do not reform; their goal is to eliminate or destroy anything which opposes their viewpoint. This is why Palin is more comfortable tearing others down than building McCain up.