
Tag Clouds of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush's - Anon84
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tag_clouds_of_obamas_inaugural_speech_compared_to_bushs.php
======
Locke
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.

~~~
jimbokun
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.

~~~
bbgm
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

~~~
froo
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?

------
mhb
Format of the NY Times version makes it a lot easier to make comparisons:
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/17/washington/200...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/17/washington/20090117_ADDRESSES.html?hp)

------
DenisM
I just can't find any meaning in this tag cloud thing. Never did actually.

~~~
bprater
I think it clues you into the president's general thinking. Obama tended to
use the word 'nation' and Bush liked the word 'freedom'.

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.

~~~
Prrometheus
I still don't get what "nation" vs. "freedom" tells me.

~~~
timcederman
The preferred type of rhetoric?

------
pg
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.

~~~
zhyder
How about "risk-taking"? I like that Obama frequently mentions it as a virtue,
but am not sure if it's common among presidents.

~~~
davidw
"Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things ..."

I liked that bit, as well as "We will restore science to its rightful place",
and the mention of "non-believers".

------
trickjarrett
Interesting to look at. More interesting would have been to compare it with W
Bush, Clinton, HW Bush, and Reagan and see how it evolved.

~~~
jhancock
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".

~~~
gaius
I'm sure that's just _coincidence_.

------
pogos
BBC prefers to call it "key words"

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/78406...](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/7840646.stm)

------
tptacek
Pretty, but a histogram would have done a better job at presenting this
comparison.

------
gyeh
Thank god, he didn't say "hope" and "change" that much...

