If you missed Obama’s State of the Union speech last night – dont worry! It was no different than the ones he gave the last 2 years.
Step 1: Copy & Paste.
Step 2: add some current references so the masses dont get suspicious.
Step 3: win re-election for your soaring rhetoric on “hope and change”
It was also the 3rd year in a row that it was written at an 8th grade level.
The vast majority of State of the Union speeches were delivered in writing prior to FDR.
Each of Obama’s three addresses are among only seven of 70 in the modern era that were written shy of a 9th grade level, and among the six that have averaged less than 17 words per sentence.
Obama’s 2012 and 2010 addresses averaged 16.6 words per sentence with his 2011 address coming in at 16.8.
Other low-scoring addresses on the Flesch-Kincaid scale over the decades are George H.W. Bush’s 1992 address, Harry Truman’s 1951 and 1952 addresses, and Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 address.
Obama’s speeches are a continuation of a general pattern that finds as State of the Union Addresses have perhaps become more and more political, they have been written more and more simplistically.
With three addresses under his belt, President Obama has the lowest average Flesch-Kincaid score for State of the Union addresses of any modern president. Obama’s average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors.
Then again, with such accomplishments, who needs fancy language in your speeches?
But my prediction remains: It won’t matter. Obama will be all smiles and everyone will love him in 2012 just as much as they have the past 3 years.
