State of the Union registers at 8th grade reading level

State of the Union registers at 8th grade reading level

www.politico.com

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average 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," they c

(visit the link for the full news article)

Are we all that dumb-ed down that the government thinks they need to talk to us in a more simplistic way? Is it the drugs, food, water, fluoride?

Or maybe txt speak is making our language more simple.

Would a professional speech writer even write at an 8th grade level unless told so?

It is like newspeak came true

shrt wrds r double plus good afterall

www.politico.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What I find hilarious is that there are people making up ratings to how well someone expresses it's ideas.

I thought that expressing yourself in a manner that everyone can understand was a good thing. I did hear the whole speech, and honestly, anyone could understand what was being said. Doesn't matter the content, the message was clear and went through.


Anyway, it's more important what you say, than how you say it.

reply to post by mnmcandiez


Well he was making his address to Congressmen and Senators after all.

You have to tailor your speech to fit the audience...

i wonder where g.w bushs speechs were at? 1st grade reading level? seriously if obama read at a higher level the right would accuse him of talking down to america... geeeez.

I think hes confused on what he is. He wants to be hip and cool so he gets more votes, but at the same time a president. He doesn't realize that he can't have both. Its like juggling two girls at once, one gives you sex and the other actually listens and gives you guy time. So the guy chooses the sex and loses a great girl. Same instance here. Obama chooses to be for the people and well he's becoming more like the average American. Which I think is why he is making so many mistakes. He needs to just be a president and stop having the mindset of wanting to be cool.

Unfortunately, to believe that load you must be at 3rd grade level or below so it likely went over it's intended audiences head anyways.

Honestly. "Load" is the nicest term I can include here as per T&C.

If the speech writers have to dumb it down more and more every year, shouldn't someone have figured out by now, that there must be a problem with the educational system?

It is hard to believe that it's dumbed down further than G W Bush's speeches - he even made up words

reply to post by mnmcandiez


And if you can't read by 8th grade, I feel very sorry for you.

This is further proof Obama is not an elitist and says more about the education system than anything. Besides, these days it's a tough economy. Only the richest 1% and the good ol boys of the Grand Old Party can still afford the $10 apiece words.

1. Ten-dollar word

Using large, difficult words that most people will not understand. Makes you look like an elitist prick that wants to flaunt your advanced intelligence or vocabulary. www.urbandictionary.com...

snowspirit .............true!

Originally posted by snowspirit


It is hard to believe that it's dumbed down further than G W Bush's speeches - he even made up words

I don't know what you're talking about. [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/020da7e99a9f.gif[/atsimg]

BB scares me . Ungood. Plusungood. Scares me I might be a prole one day, maybe vaporized for not being a goodthinker. If he gets reelected I'm joining the brotherhood for sure

reply to post by mnmcandiez


Maybe he dumbs down his teleprompter-read speeches so that his supporters will understand whatever lies he's pumping into them clearly and think of him as intelligent. I mean come on, you'd have to be pretty thick to support Obama right now

I kid I kid.....no not really

There's zero doubt in my mind that this was by design. They aren't trying to reach people that can think for themselves, because they know that's a dead end. The only people who support this guy are those that don't make an honest living. They either rely on govt. assistance in one form or another, or teach. (badly) His biggest block of voters are unemployed.

Originally posted by FortAnthem

Originally posted by snowspirit


It is hard to believe that it's dumbed down further than G W Bush's speeches - he even made up words

I don't know what you're talking about. [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/020da7e99a9f.gif[/atsimg]

Good sport there - I'll have to admit...sometimes I sort of miss him. He certainly kept us entertained and gave lots of fodder for the night time talk show hosts.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but here in the US I believe most newspapers, and magazines are intentionally written at a Jr High to early high school reading level.

I had a boss once who was so annoyed with not being able to understand my e-mails he told me I had to put the text in MS word, and do a reading level check.

My boss, and co workers all agreed with the Jr High level reading for newspapers/ mags.

He would not let me send the e-mails until I could get them down to at least high school level.

(Thats not easy to do when you work in a technology field at a fortune 500 company)

Try explaining the CSMA/CD aspect of ethernet, and keep it to a high school level.

Originally posted by dillweed
There's zero doubt in my mind that this was by design. They aren't trying to reach people that can think for themselves, because they know that's a dead end. The only people who support this guy are those that don't make an honest living. They either rely on govt. assistance in one form or another, or teach. (badly) His biggest block of voters are unemployed.

So what is all this complaining about jobs, jobs, jobs then?

You saying there are jobs out there?

You are saying people are just too lazy to work and so they are voting for Obama because of that?

I think some people have a pesky social conscience and do not shy away from the word social, thereby admitting (and accepting) the welfare of the least among us, including the unemployed... is indeed a valid concern and worth some small investment on their part.

It is a scientifically proven actuality - the more money you have the less empathy for others you are apt to have. You will likely have much less identification with and/or understanding of human suffering. www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yes, money puts you above human suffering ...or more accurately puts you in places where you don't see it. Precisely why Princess Diana took pains to expose her sons to the poor, so they would understand how fortunate they were. So by deductive and logical reasoning the unemployed and the poorest among us are the most empathetic to the needs of others. Doesn't it figure? Like we did not already know that! Unemployment is the biggest problem the country has right now yet some people are blaming the unemployed themselves.
This clearly defines the party divide. Compassionate approach versus no compassion.

Hence the viscous, and I stress the word viscous since it is what it is an intended calculated and deliberate trick, VISCOUS - creating a cycle which is in turn creating the mess that is America today. Our rich don't care and yet they have a lot of troubled, struggling and frustrated citizens fooled into siding with them, parroting their causes. Lured there with the smell of money and false promises of equality. It is a scam and it is working.

Time to break the mold folks.

As long as society is still reflected in shows like 'Jersey Shore', 'The Real House Wives of ( insert city name here )', and whatever other projectively stupid shows people still watch enough that the ratings grant repeat seasons, we're doomed to be looked down upon by, not just our government, but the rest of the world.
Sad but true.

reply to post by FortAnthem

Touche! HAHA! Thanks for that, made my morning.

How quickly we forget. I do miss those bushisms, but thankfully, there's always Gary Busey!

There is no conspiracy here...

It's like that so that people who don't have an education can understand. He needs to make sure that EVERYONE understands his messages...

Plain and simple...

You know, I watched a little biy of the speech and it was awful IMO. Riddled with NLP. Especially yhe fact that he started saying about how the rich should not be blamed for thier wealth, however he didnt mention the fact that those super rich stole the wealth and committed fraud against us to get it!

I had to switch off at that point.