What Obama and Romney Talked About

Presidential Convention World Cloud

(Image credit: New York Times)

Throughout the presidential election I was amazed how little either candidate discussed climate change – that is, neither said anything about it and both championed “clean coal,” whatever that is. Hearing the phrase “clean coal” makes me think about what it must be like for a quinquagenarian to eat Wendy’s before going in to get their blood pressure checked, and how on their drive to the doc they might shamelessly try something to mitigate the effects of their lack of restraint. What’s the humane and intelligent response to such tomfoolery? And then to think how much of that “clean coal” is powering the servers that are hosting this blog and all others out there on the interwebs…quit reading now! But of course none of us are going to quit reading or streaming, or eating Wendy’s. Hence why neither candidate thought the subject smart enough to broach, I guess.

RNC 2012

(Image credit: Associated Press)

The word cloud pictured at the top of this post is probably old news to some of you, but it serves my point. It can be found on The New York Times website, and it’s neat because there’s a search bar at the top in which you can determine how often speakers at the two presidential nominating conventions said a given word. Neither party mentioned drones at all, and only Democrats mentioned climate change – at a rate of 0.5 times per every 25,000 words. What words did the two parties frequently mention? Democrats overwhelmingly uttered the words Medicare, women, economy, vote, health, workers, seniors, and forward. Republicans overwhelmingly mentioned the words business, leadership, freedom, better, government, and success. The parties mentioned immigration an equal number of times, which given the Hispanic turnout in the election, it’s nice to see that actions still matter more than words. Republicans surprisingly mentioned hope more often than Democrats at the 2012 conventions, and surprisingly these instances weren’t responses to Obama’s 2008 campaign theme. I’m not really sure why Democrats mentioned fight more than Republicans. But in all seriousness, taking stock of the words uttered by Democrats and Republicans at their nominating parties – the moment both teams start making their formal arguments – it should be clear why the Dems prevailed. Medicare, women, economy, vote, health, workers, seniors, and forward are all much more substantial kernels than business, leadership, freedom, better, government, and success. I would have liked to hear about the climate, however.

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