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Rhetorical analysis: How Obama is dumbing down his speeches
Measuring the complexity of each speech can help distinguish between the two, according to political rhetoric experts.
“You want short, punchy presentations when you’re campaigning rather than, say, an intricate defense of just war. You’re going to come out with different patterns on the Flesch scale,” said Fred I. Greenstein, a professor of politics emeritus at Princeton University.
Obama’s student loan remarks seemed to fit the bill for a campaign speech. According to the Flesch scale, which measures reading difficulty on a grade-level scale, Obama’s oratory has been on a steep decline from the 2008 campaign.
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..uh..oh! Someone page FuriousEd since he’s into correcting everyone’s grammar these days!
The War Planner on April 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM
How could anybody tell?
tetriskid on April 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Rhetorical analysis: How Obama is further dumbing down his speeches
FIFY
KrebsCyclist on April 27, 2012 at 1:44 PM
From:
Bush’s fault!
To:
Derp! Bush!
lorien1973 on April 27, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Program the teleprompter: “Romney bad. Me good. Vote me.”
The Rogue Tomato on April 27, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Your problem isnt that people dont understand you. Your problem is that people understand you quite well.
Valkyriepundit on April 27, 2012 at 1:45 PM
They all do it.
Dack Thrombosis on April 27, 2012 at 1:46 PM
The guy has been repeating entire speeches near-verbatim for 4 years now. I’m not sure it’s possible for him to dumb down his speeches much more than that.
teke184 on April 27, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Dummy in Chief – until he supplies his grades and the papers he wrote, there’s no way anyone can consider him smart.
Schadenfreude on April 27, 2012 at 1:52 PM
How dumb are we?
Schadenfreude on April 27, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Sorry, here’s the link.
Schadenfreude on April 27, 2012 at 1:53 PM
I thought he wasn’t campaigning on the taxpayer dime.
forest on April 27, 2012 at 1:53 PM
The future…and the present.
Schadenfreude on April 27, 2012 at 1:55 PM
He’s got to find all the stupid voters he can.
Akzed on April 27, 2012 at 1:55 PM
I don’t know, I mute bho everytime I see his face on the tube! It is a bit harder when listening on the radio.
L
letget on April 27, 2012 at 1:55 PM
He can get dumber than he already is? This should be interesting.
Rio Linda Refugee on April 27, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Lost his thesaurus?
Michelle complained about not being able to keep up?
BobMbx on April 27, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Thing is, PBHO could say “Vote me!” and his believers would still be scratching their heads and thinking *whaaaat?*
Bishop on April 27, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Progressives believe in their product. If there is nothing wrong with the product “rejected soundly in 2010″ it must be the sales pitch.
Never does it occur to these people that the American people, don’t want what they are selling.
Dr Evil on April 27, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Yeah he’s already dropping the ‘g’ in order to be down w1v d4 y00f.
mudskipper on April 27, 2012 at 2:05 PM
By opening his mouth…?
de rigueur on April 27, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Is Obama getting dumber or is America becoming too smart for it own good?
/npr
chimney sweep on April 27, 2012 at 2:09 PM
How do you dumbify down from “Yes We Can”, “Hope and Change”, “He is the One”?
Paul-Cincy on April 27, 2012 at 2:31 PM
Teleprompter had a lobotomy?
fogw on April 27, 2012 at 2:36 PM
Well, he has been speaking at a lot of college campuses lately…
Fallon on April 27, 2012 at 2:40 PM
Dumbing down speeches to college students?
There’s a lesson there if we’d bother.
rogerb on April 27, 2012 at 2:40 PM
Obama is going to lose, in a landslide, come November.
I can’t wait. I can’t wait to watch his ego melt and all of the talking heads to explode.
I simply cannot wait!
Woot!
bridgetown on April 27, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Of course it has. How else can he communicate with his voters and fellow democrats.
kim roy on April 27, 2012 at 3:02 PM
Obama thinks he has to treat us all like middle schoolers to win us over to an “obviously correct” point?
I don’t belieeeeevve yoooooouuu….
The Schaef on April 27, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Hey, give Dear Leader a break. After all, he “only” got 70% of the high school dropout vote the last time (a new alltime record nonetheless, beating Algore in 2000 with 61%).
He’ll need 90% of them to win this time around.
Del Dolemonte on April 27, 2012 at 3:38 PM
Wonder how the Flesch test scores “they talk about me like a dog.” It is more complex than “I won”.
obladioblada on April 27, 2012 at 3:50 PM