Treehugger.com first turned us on to the Web site Speechwars. Speechwars counts and graphs how many times each presidential candidate has said a word. Furthermore, Speechwars tallies words used in speeches by Barak Obama and John McCain since 2004.
For instance, consider the word “solar.” McCain has said “solar” 18 times; Obama 40 times. At the bottom of the graph’s horizontal axis you can scroll over and find out the date and title of the speech when the word was uttered.
McCain has used the word “wind” 29 times; in contrast Obama has said “wind” 51 times. The word “renewable” is favored by Obama (112 times), McCain has said it 15 times.
When you query for a combination of two words (such as “solar” and “renewable”) then the graph will show you how those two words overlap.
Check it out, www.speechwars.com. The home page starts with the word “love.” Pick your favorite word and see if the candidates share your love. :-)
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Hi Tom,
Hey that’s fascinating! and the way people use language tells us so much about where they are coming from, and where they darn well might be going and-taking us!
And it surely is the case with politicians.
Thought you might find the writing of UC Berkeley Professor, George Lakoff in line with this discussion: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19811/
Best Wishes, and i hope we’ll get an opportunity to psek again sometime this week,
All the Best,
Charles
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