debate word counter and splitter upper highlighter thingy

October 1, 2004 2:52 PM

The amazing debate spotter text analysis tool is a fun way to look at the words our leaders use. Bush had a lot of obvious ones: hard work, wrong time, wrong place, he forgot poland. Kerry name dropped Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden quite a bit and had the highest kill ratio. Here's Cameron's post about how it came to be and how it works. Politics in the age of the internet are certainly an interesting time.
posted by mathowie (36 comments total)

Just for the record, Bush was wrong about Poland, they weren't part of the initial invasion force. But he sounded so sure of himself when he thought he had him...
posted by Space Coyote at 2:58 PM on October 1, 2004

"mixed messages" seemed to be the core of the debate, with both sides equally duking it out.
posted by mathowie at 2:59 PM on October 1, 2004

Bush must hate the United States - he only said it twice.
posted by jazon at 3:18 PM on October 1, 2004

Hand Job
posted by eatitlive at 3:21 PM on October 1, 2004

Now see, here I am about to promote Firefox and it's search highlight function... nevermind.
posted by linux at 3:24 PM on October 1, 2004

heh. moooooooolah
posted by angry modem at 3:28 PM on October 1, 2004

I find it interesting how each candidate referred to the other. Kerry called Bush "the president" 48 times (52 occurences of "the president" or "the president's", but 4 of those were not in reference to Bush), but only 4 "President Bush." Bush referring to Kerry: "my opponent" 20 times, "Senator Kerry" only once. Seems neither one much likes to mention the other's name.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:36 PM on October 1, 2004

This is a neat tool. There was a sight a while back that show word usage grahically (word usage = area of a circle). I was hoping to see something like that again.

Anyone remember that site?
posted by betaray at 4:01 PM on October 1, 2004

Corporate = 0 times
posted by iamck at 4:07 PM on October 1, 2004

I added a scoreboard so people don't have to count by hand. If you load the page without a query you get the total number of words spoken by both candidates, Bush: 6324, Kerry: 7103.

betaray: The NYTimes did an infographic after the RNC comparing the words spoken at both conventions, but I'm not sure there is an online tool to generate such graphs.
posted by cameron at 4:13 PM on October 1, 2004

The spinning is STILL against Bush

It's Kerry's race to lose now:
The Republicans should be terrified. In fact I've thought for months the polls have been wrong anyway. My Mantra of Positive thought has been:

1. NO Gore voters will vote for Bush
2. I PERSONALLY know some Bush voters voting against him this year and you do too.
3. Voter registration is way up, most of those will be votes against Bush.
4. The independent vote will swing against Bush.
5. Nader will not be nearly as much as a factor.
6. The Democrats will NOT allow a stolen election again.

Dems: Keep repeating this to yourself and stay positive.
I predict a Kerry landslide that shocks the country (but not me).
posted by monkeyboy_socal at 4:16 PM on October 1, 2004

This is cool, funny how neither of them said "sphincter" though. You'd think a debate on foreign policy would include one or two sphincters.

But nope, I didn't see Cheney or Rove in the audience.

On Preview: Monkeyboy, where ya been? We need your brand of positivity in the threads, man! I like what you wrote and how you wrote it.

The Kerry campaign has just taken on a whole other level of momentum. Especially now in the next day and the spin is still all Kerry.
posted by fenriq at 4:19 PM on October 1, 2004

George Bush, 2004: Being president is hard, hard work.

Will Farrell as George Bush, 2000: Presidenting is hard!
posted by kirkaracha at 4:24 PM on October 1, 2004

From The National Review!!!

"I thought Kerry did very, very well; and I thought Bush did poorly — much worse than he is capable of doing. Listen: If I were just a normal guy — not Joe Political Junkie — I would vote for Kerry. On the basis of that debate, I would. If I were just a normal, fairly conservative, war-supporting guy: I would vote for Kerry. On the basis of that debate.

And I promise you that no one wants this president reelected more than I. I think that he may want it less.

Let me phrase one more time what I wish to say: If I didn't know anything — were a political naïf, being introduced to the two candidates for the first time — I would vote for Kerry. Based on that infernal debate."
posted by monkeyboy_socal at 4:32 PM on October 1, 2004

That the Nordlinger guy from the National Review conceeds the debate to Kerry is kind of amazing given how he feels about W...

... I have called George W. Bush a Rushmore-level president. I believe history will bear that out; and if it doesn't, history will be wrong. I think that Bush's reelection is crucial not only to this country but to the world at large. I not only think that Bush is the right man for the job; I have a deep fondness — love, really — for the man, though I don't know him.

But tonight (I am writing immediately post-debate) did not show him at his best. Not at all...

This guy believes he's a "Rushmore-level president"??? Bush isn't fit to pick the noses of the Rushmore presidents.
posted by jasper411 at 4:40 PM on October 1, 2004

http://www.youforgotpoland.com
posted by Argyle at 4:43 PM on October 1, 2004

Old that old pre-September 10th mentality.
posted by DenOfSizer at 4:46 PM on October 1, 2004

iamck: yeah no occourrence of "corporate" but look at this part of the transcript

I've met kids in Ohio, parents in Wisconsin places, Iowa, where they're going out on the Internet to get the state-of-the-art body gear to send to their kids. Some of them got them for a birthday present.

I think that's wrong. Humvees -- 10,000 out of 12,000 Humvees that are over there aren't armored. And you go visit some of those kids in the hospitals today who were maimed because they don't have the armament.

I leave to you as an exercise to see who said that, but I already heard about the above mentioned problems one too many times not to think there could be a very big logistic messup if 10K out of 12k Humvees aren't adequately armored or not armored at all. The armor is another interesting issue to investigate ...and if my memory serves a lot of logistics was outsourced to private companies (read corporation) with questionable close bid methods in a corporate welfare attitude twice as sickening as the welfare for not-sick-but-want-do-nothing people.

There's a lot of stuff to see on the behavior of corporate in this war, but it's a matter so complicated and hostile to most population that maybe is better to leave it for post elections.

As for Prez Candidates saying "corporate sucks" you can pretty much forget it.
posted by elpapacito at 4:51 PM on October 1, 2004

"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!"
posted by homunculus at 4:53 PM on October 1, 2004

This is a fascinating tool. One of the things that struck me during the debate was how often Bush kept on using the word "free". The more he said it, the hollower it felt. I was really hoping Jim Lehrer would ask each candidate " What is your definition of 'Free'?"

Bush 38 Kerry 4
posted by jeremias at 5:12 PM on October 1, 2004

Bad: 0
Good: 10 (Bush 7, Kerry, 3)
posted by tapeguy at 5:32 PM on October 1, 2004

Worse: (Bush 1, Kerry 2)
Better: (Bush 10, Kerry 15)
posted by tapeguy at 5:36 PM on October 1, 2004

That the Nordlinger guy from the National Review conceeds the debate to Kerry is kind of amazing given how he feels about W...

... I have called George W. Bush a Rushmore-level president. I believe history will bear that out;...

This guy believes he's a "Rushmore-level president"??? Bush isn't fit to pick the noses of the Rushmore presidents.

Maybe calling him a "Rushmore-level president" is a polite way of saying that he was stoned all the time.
posted by substrate at 5:43 PM on October 1, 2004

Blow me.

Exiting 8th grade now...
posted by Dick Paris at 6:16 PM on October 1, 2004

See also this spreadsheet that will count the number of times a word was used.
posted by kenko at 6:34 PM on October 1, 2004

Winning the war of words
posted by homunculus at 8:30 PM on October 1, 2004

nuclear
posted by leaveok at 8:52 PM on October 1, 2004

monkeyboy_socal:

1. NO Gore voters will vote for Bush

Er, why then in Florida for example does a decisive majority now support Bush in polls? More than before the debates, for some bizarre reason. Believe it or not, Bush's incumbency does a lot for him - due in part to the idea that he's proven himself to be at least a passable president, and the idea that anything he's accomplished may be left half-formed if he doesn't get a a second term, among other reasons.
posted by abcde at 10:10 PM on October 1, 2004

Last night was the second time I've heard a southern housewife type call up C-SPAN just to say "I think George Bush is a good Christian man, and I don't know why everyone talks so bad about him." Maybe it's the same lady.
posted by abcde at 10:12 PM on October 1, 2004

"That's kind of a pre-September 10th mentality"
posted by Cicerius at 2:38 AM on October 2, 2004

Remember 9/10.
posted by The God Complex at 4:21 AM on October 2, 2004

Osama Bin Laden : Kerry 9, Bush 4

Terrorists : Kerry 9, Bush 4

This underlines Kerry's point - Bush's eye isn't on the ball. It's on Iraq.

So, while evil, scheming Osama runs wild and free - ever plotting against the American people - George W Bush goes pooty-poot-poot.
posted by troutfishing at 7:03 AM on October 2, 2004

I've got a good relation with Vladimer.
posted by PrinceValium at 12:24 PM on October 2, 2004

monkeyboy, I realized I'm feeling pretty optimistic when I started responding to your post by saying I could imagine it going any way, a close call, or a kerry landslide or a bush landsl... and then I thought, no, I can't imagine a bush landslide, actually, I really can't... of course, who knows how I'll feel next week, but still...

However, I think you can't count on your first point, considering how many voters make up their minds at the last minute, and how different the issues are, and the atmosphere is, than four years ago. Still, maybe people are starting to see that prez neumann failed to stop a terrorist attack, and failed to respond to the american people over it for - I don't remember how long, hours, maybe days, whatever, I just remember how it felt, that giuliani was our only leader at that time, and despite his being a dick (and exploiting that moment now) he actually knew how to respond to a catastrophe. Bush is not a leader at all. He's a scared little kid. He's not evil, he's just incompetent (and surrounded by people who may be a little bit evil).
posted by mdn at 1:19 PM on October 2, 2004

"Bush was wrong about Poland, they weren't part of the initial invasion force."

Not officially at the time - but as you can see in this Deutsche Welle article from March 3, Poland sent around 60 elite GROM commandos to back the initial invasion force. Here's a
photo of GROM in Umm Qasr.
posted by romanb at 9:51 PM on October 2, 2004

I've said this on the blue before, but I keep thinking, Bush only "won" by 500 votes before. How much ground has he gained with those who voted against him? How many people has he alienated? His position can't be that secure. He CAN be defeated.
posted by orange swan at 5:59 PM on October 3, 2004