Modern political speeches are highly-crafted affairs, with much test marketing to see how themes, images and keywords poll among voters. And apart from congressional hearings and FCC open meetings, there’s probably nothing more scripted and kabuki-like than the speeches made at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Nevertheless, President Bill Clinton’s speech on foreign policy Wednesday night was perhaps just as highly-anticipated as his wife Hillary’s: He’s had a relatively rocky relationship with both the media and Barack Obama and his campaign during this election cycle. So people wanted to know what he would have to say — and how he would say it.
Clinton delivered on expectations. Settling the public narrative that had built up about his remaining grudges against the Obama campaign, he began his speech by stating that he was "honored" to be there to support Obama.
Then he made sure that he drove home the point about Obama being ready to lead the most powerful nation on the planet.
"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world," he said. "Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."
Those words directly counter the Clinton campaign’s own assertions during the primaries — as well as the Republicans’, who earlier this week launched a publicity blitz dubbed "Not Ready ’08."
How many times did Clinton use the word "ready," when he endorsed Obama, and how prominently did it feature in his effort to brand Obama in the field of foreign policy?
You can use this online text analysis tool fromIBM’s Visual Communication Lab called "Many Eyes," to find out by just mousing over the word, or by performing a search. It’s actually a really fun tool to muck around with, and it gives you another perspective and way to parse Clinton’s 1,636-word speech.
The lab has created several different tools: Someone else on Wednesday night created this elegant-looking word tree out of Delaware Senator Joe Biden’s acceptance speech.
It’s almost as fun as monkeying around with "Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle," and probably as meaningful.
