How far we've come... a visual representation.
Kari Chisholm
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Wordle.net actually makes the picture out of the thousands of words.
After the president's speech last night, I grabbed the transcript and dropped it into Wordle. And for a bit of contrast, I did the same with Dubya's final State of the Union address in 2008.
Wow. We really have come a long way. See for yourself. Obama on top, Bush down below.
 |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
1:36 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
what does the difference in shapes & colors signify?
Feb 25, '09
I LOVE this graphic. It captures visually how I felt, hearing Obama talk last night. We are back in reality again, after eight years of strangeness.
Feb 25, '09
This is a good visual. It really helps to stop and think where we are nationally. Sometimes I still can't believe it.
So here's a question: would Obama have been as electable if Bush hadn't been such a bad president?
2:12 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
what does the difference in shapes & colors signify?
Nothing. The shapes are random. The colors I picked because they looked nice.
2:13 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
So here's a question: would Obama have been as electable if Bush hadn't been such a bad president?
Maybe. Maybe not.
I've saying a lot lately, as a half-joke, that we now know what it would take for America to elect a black president... two disastrous wars, a global economic meltdown, the drowning of a major American city, and a president who proves to be an idiot.
2:40 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
There was a story on NPR the other morning about how Obama was going to fund high-speed rail in heavily-traveled corridors...I asked my kids how cool it would be to take a super-fast train that helps the environment all the way to Seattle. Then I cried. Again. It's still hitting me how so many things have and are going to change.
3:12 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
High-speed rail from Seattle to Portland? Sounds great. Except that I'd make it all the way from Vancouver BC to Eugene.
Feb 25, '09
You forgot my 3 favorite Bush words from 2003:
"Human-animal hybrid"
as in:
Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids ....
What the MSM wouldn't overlook when Chimpy McFlightSuit was occupying the Oval Office.
4:05 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
The colors are gilding the lily, and actually hurt your point Kari. It is biasing the word cloud images.
The regular black and white word clouds Kos had up are better.
Feb 25, '09
"two disastrous wars, a global economic meltdown, the drowning of a major American city, and a president who proves to be an idiot"
And during all of that Congress was?
Feb 25, '09
The application is tailor made for style above substance, rhetoric above reality.
6:35 p.m.
Feb 25, '09
During almost all of that, the Republicans were in control of Congress and blocked until this past month by an obstructionist, filibustering GOP Senate.
We are still held hostage by the obstructionist, filibustering GOP Senate minority for the most part, though it looks like we might be able to peal enough to break the "just say no" luddite party, time will tell.
Feb 25, '09
I wrote this after Obama's Inauguration speech.
“Barack Obama Inaug09” http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/451880/Barack_Obama_Inaug09
“Bush Farewell Speech” http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/443102/Bush_Farewell_Speech
The similarity is striking. You can browse through other word clouds on Wordle and see that this is not a common phenomena. It appears that Bush is sounding more like Obama and Obama is sounding more like Bush.
Feb 26, '09
lestatdelc,
During all of that, the Republicans and Democrats in Congress did exactly the same things they did in the previous 20 years. Out of control expansion of government while asleep at the wheel of responsible oversight.
All your rhetoric about Repubicans causing, blocking, obstructing and filibustering is just a lame as can be.
There are so many things that both parties went along with each other on that it makes no sense to separate them, if one is talking about being responsible.
Neither party has come close to being so.
<hr/>