Words Matter

FiveThirtyEight.com's Nate Silver posted several charts detailing the language used in State of the Union speeches going back to President Kennedy. It's a gold mine for people nerdy enough to be interested in such things, and it says a great deal about what each speaker thought was important at the time. 


I particularly enjoy the numbers shown in the "Process" chart.  Even with the gaps in data, it's safe to say the terms Democrat, Republican, and bipartisan were practically absent from State of the Union speeches until 1994, when Bill Clinton was faced with the prospect of a very hostile Congress.  Funny how the potential for conflict with another party tends to change your tone.