Well, it's that time of year again. The Groundhog, er, um, President has
come out of his hole and told us what he wants us to think about the State of
our Union.
Here are the numbers and my anaysis.
| Year | | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | | Number of Words | 5671 | 5435 | 5185 | 5284 | 5400 | 3948 | | Number of applauses | 64 | 66 | 67 | 72 | 77 | 76 | | Mentioned Terror/ist/ism | 23 | 20 | 27 | 20 | 40 | 20 | | Mentioned Free/dom | 11 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 36 | | Mentioned God | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | | | |
| | | | | Fear Factor* (%) | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 |
*Fear Factor = Percentage of words in the speech referring to "terror"
Number of words:
2007's SOTU is a record year for words. The trend, starting in 2003 has been pretty flat. The sudden uptick for 2007 can only mean one thing. He's trying to talk himself out of a hole.
Number of applauses: The applause count continues on the downward trend coming in two units lower than last year and 17% below his peak of 2003. The applause index too shows a definite trend downwards. In 2002, that index (the ratio of applauses to words) was a respectable 1.9. This year he's at his lowest with an absymal 1.1.
Number of Terro/ists/ism: With the exception of 2002, the fear factor has held pretty steady. There was a slight blip in 2005's speech but hardly noticeable. Same goes for this year. A blip but well within the record set in post 9/11 2003.
Number of Freedoms: Freedom is showing a dramatic decrease. From 2002, freedoms have dropped consistently. Our freedom is now down to 2003 levels.
Scary.
Number of Gods: God is holding steady. Not much to report here.
Is my analysis any good? Do the data tell us anything? Can we make predictions with it? Hey, knock yourself out. Were I president, that applause trend would bother me.
As a citizen, I don't like the "freedom" count and I would like to see the "fear factor" go down.
ARBLabels: 2007, Bush, Sarcasm, SOTU, State of the Union | 
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