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Language of Politics: 9th-Grade or Less

November 7, 2000 - If you feel that Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush are talking down to you, you might be right ... if you're in high school or older.

During this year's televised presidential debates, the candidates spoke at a level that never even rose to an average of a ninth-grade reading level.

Researchers at yourDictionary.com, a Web site devoted to language research and usage, analyzed what the candidates said during the debates with the Flesch Kincaid Index.

Using factors like the number of multi-syllable words and the length of sentences, Beard and his colleagues calculated the reading grade level of the candidates' language.

They found that Gore's average language level from all three debates was about the eighth-grade level. Bush's average was at the sixth-grade level.

Beard noted that the numbers showed a steady decline as the debates continued. During the first debate, Bush spoke at the seventh-grade level, but during the second and third debates, he dropped to the lower ranges of sixth-grade language. Gore began at the eighth-grade level, but by the third debate, he was speaking at the mid-range of seventh-grade level.

Beard's conclusion was not surprising. "The study shows that the advent of radio and television has had a profound effect on how politicians ta1k," he said.

Beard said researchers had also analyzed American political language in the past, including George Washington's farewell address (12th grade), Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Declaration of War (11th grade), and the debate between Stephen Douglas (12th grade) and Abraham Lincoln (11th grade).

During the first televised debate neither John F. Kennedy nor Richard Nixon spoke above a ninth-grade level.

Jimmy Carter's presence seemed to raise the bar a little with his use of 10th-grade language while debating Gerald Ford, who spoke at the 11th-grade level. Carter reached the 12th-grade level while debating Ronald Reagan (almost 11th grade), but there has been a steady decline since then.

During the last two debates, Bill Clinton stayed at the mid-eighth-grade level, while George Bush spoke at the mid-sixth-grade level. Bob Dole's language was an even lower sixth-grade level.

"Politicians are thinking less of their position in history, less of posterity, and more of the next election." Beard said.

The language of the presidential debates is not the universal language of politics. Beard said Ralph Nader's acceptance speech of the Green Party's nomination reached 12th-grade levels. During the vice presidential debate, Joe Lieberman spoke at about the 10th-grade level while Dick Cheney used ninth-grade level language.

During the third debate, the candidates accepted questions from the audience rather than from a moderator. According to Beard, the audience members spoke at about a ninth-grade level.

"It suggests the people who came to the debate were expecting more. The candidates were speaking below the level of the people listening to them," Beard said.

The researchers also counted the number of words used by each candidate during the debates. During the second and third debates, Bush outspoke Gore by 6.5 percent and then by 11.6 percent.

During the second debate, Gore used about 73 percent more words than Bush. "What is interesting is that Gore shot up during the second debate, and according to the CNN/USA Today polls taken right after the debate, it was the only one he lost. We wondered if this meant that Gore would win by a landslide if he said nothing more until Nov. 7," Beard said.