More Charged Language

It is possible, in the midst of a three-hour, 39-minute baseball game, for the attention to wander. Anyway, while the Red Sox were clubbing Seattle yesterday afternoon, mine did. (Not enough for me to tune out; a win at Safeco is rare enough that I watch to the final out.) It wandered right over to the White House's webpage, where I continued looking at the frequency with which Bush used heated languages in speeches. See if you can spot the pattern*:

"Terror" and "Danger"



The pattern was thrown off slightly by 9/11, but sure enough, when it came time to scare soccer moms before an election, Bush was ready with the fear-mongering. Of course, he's not above emotional manipulation, either. Have a look at the next chart.

"Troops"



For a guy who has ridden the backs of the military harder than any president in American history, this is pretty cynical, don't you think? But cynicism isn't just for the troops. Bush also played the God card to the hilt.

"God"


Based on this pattern, it looks like we can expect to hear a lot more of "God," "the troops," "danger" and "terror" in a few months.

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*As with the earlier graph, these use six-month averages, which is why the height of use doesn't necessarily correspond with the election. If an enterprising blogger wanted to break it down by month, it might be even more illustrative. Maybe I'll get to it during the next televised Red Sox game. (Might be awhile--I don't have cable.)