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Bush to Win According to Linguistic Analysis by yourDictionary.com

DANVILLE, CA, November 6, 2000 - Researchers at yourDictionary.com (YDC), the leading global language portal, today announced that in the final weekend of the Presidential campaign, Governor George W. Bush has eclipsed Vice President Al Gore in terms language usage as measured by reading grade level, which might be a predictive Indicator of a Bush victory. This is a dramatic departure from YDC's analysis of the televised debates, where Gore was shown to have outscored Bush in each.

Applying the widely used Flesch-Kincaide Reading Scale to a selection of the candidate's most recent statements, researchers at yourDictionary.com found that both Bush (9.9) and Gore (9.5) were speaking near the tenth grade level when delivering what could be called their 'vision' speeches. The Bush-Gore debates, on the other hand, began and a 7th to 8th grade level and ended up at a 6th to-7th grade level. Gore's speech was found to be about half a grade level higher than Bush's throughout the debates.

"Our analysis also found that the candidates' use of passive voice varied greatly according to the topic and the audience," said Paul JJ Payack, President and CEO of yourDictionary.com, "For example, when delivering their 'vision' pitches, both candidates used no passive voice constructions. However, when addressing such topics as Social Security and Medicaid, Gore relied on the passive voice some 10% of the time, while Bush's use of the passive jumped to 6%." Payack added that the passive voice is widely used to shade meaning, or in political parlance to 'spin' particular subjects, since there is no readily identifiable 'doer' of the action. Florida also seemed to have a direct impact on the candidates' reliance on passive voice, with Gore at 10% and Bush at 4%.

yourDictionary.com's earlier analyses found that the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960 set the modern standard with both Kennedy and Nixon scoring near the tenth grade level. Since that time the level of political discourse has steadily fallen with the exception of the Carter-Reagan debates of 1980, which averaged near the twelfth grade level. The culprits for the decline most frequently cited include the media, radio and television.

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