2.23.2008

"My fellow Americans..."

Artist R. Luke Dubois has used the familiar optometrist's eye-chart to provide an interesting dissection of Presidential State of the Union addresses in a piece he calls "Hindsight is Always 20/20." The more often a word is used in the speech, the bigger the word appears on Dubois' chart. It's genius, the way one can easily see the big topics and themes with which the nation was grappling (or what topics and themes these presidents wanted to grapple).

George Washington's top 3 words: gentleman, provision, fellow
Thomas Jefferson: limits, sum, soon
Andrew Jackson: bank, money, payment
Abraham Lincoln: emancipation, rebellion, proclamation
Teddy Roosevelt: corporations, railroad, wage
Woodrow Wilson: processes, energy, tasks
Herbert Hoover: unemployment, recovery, major
Franklin D. Roosevelt: democratic, unity, allies
Dwight Eisenhower: nuclear, scientific, planning
Richard Nixon: truly, environment, vision
Jimmy Carter: us, 1980s, sector
Ronald Reagan: deficit, let's, bless
Bill Clinton: 21st, got, lot
George W. Bush: terror, iraq, iraqi

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