Recently leaked footage of the new Paris Hilton sex tape. …

GUYTON, Larry I., 22, Pfc., Army; Brenham, Tex.; First Cavalry Division.

HAMLIN, Christopher N., 24, Staff Sgt., Army; London, Ky.; First Cavalry Division.

KIERNAN, Christopher S., 37, Staff Sgt., Army; Virginia Beach; First Cavalry Division.

MACK, Kenneth N., 42, Master Sgt., Marines; Fort Worth; Second Marine Expeditionary Force.

PALMER, Charles O. II, 36, Cpl., Marines; Manteca, Calif.; Second Marine Expeditionary Force.

POTTER, Jerome J., 24, Pfc., Army; Tacoma, Wash.; First Cavalry Division.

What I found most interesting was the “tag cloud” stuff on candidate speeches so far. It led me to this page

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/tag_clouds_for_the_democratic.php

Interestingly, Obama has the highest total wordcount for statistical purposes, AND one of the least issue-specific clouds. Hardly a “frame” in sight. Is “around” a politically charged term? Am I missing the dog-whistle note in “going”? Can we be sure that when he says “sure” (as he apparently does, quite often) he’s really sure? He uses the word “families” quite frequently, as Bill Clinton did, and as Dubya did until 9/11. (Guess what the big word is *after* 9/11. Hint: it starts with a “t”.)

What’s going on here with Obama is that he’s wonking a lot, a *whole* lot, but on a lot of *different* topics, cancelling out any particular topic. Of course, if you go his site, you can see videos of him winning the popularity contest handily, and these clips won’t strain your powers of attention. But you can also find long speeches on topics like putting the world’s nuclear enrichment programs under an umbrella organization. That’s about terrorism-prevention, not going mano-a-mano with terrorists. Uranium won’t pop out in his tag clouds because he’s going at the problem from an “ounce of prevention” angle. And he’s talking about a lot of other ounces, all over the map.

In blatant defiance of his ostensible strategy of direct popular conversation, Obama’s real audience right now for all this verbiage is specialized political classes — evangelical leaders on the Dem side of the spectrum, high-level federal bureaucrats, business leaders, opinion-makers on specific policy issues. In these speeches, he greets initial applause with a slightly dour machine-gun spray of “thank you, thank you, thank you”, and almost winces when scattered applause erupts in mid-sentence. The message in that is clearly, “Shut the fuck up, because what I’m going to say here is about stuff that matters to YOU, regardless of how you feel about ME. I’ve got a lot of material to cover. So don’t waste my time.” He’s giving them a heads-up on what an Obama presidency is going to mean to them in career terms. That’s truly brilliant strategy: for now, let the other candidates hammer away on getting the votes that he can get almost effortlessly with a smile and a wave, with his faintly Lincolnesque persona in formal speeches to open crowds, his faintly (Bill) Clintonesque persona in the more informal settings. He’s concentrating on building up expectations among the people he’ll be working with, day-to-day, if he reaches the Oval Office. These two terms of Dubya will leave quite a few GOP political appointees in office after 2008, and even they will greatly appreciate knowing where he’s coming from in various policy arenas.

Cf. Hillary. Hillary is really big on saying “president”. President, president, president — she just loves to say “president”. She doesn’t need to provide detailed career-navigation clues to the political classes, because they already know that her administration will be Billary: The Sequel.

Edwards is #2 in the upstart-popularity sweepstakes with Obama, and he’s trying harder. For him, it’s about votes from the gut, and he knows it. He even has helpful Lakoffian Framing happening by accident in his tag cloud, in alphabetical order, stuff you’d have to pay cubic dollars to political consultants to figure out, after they got that nattering George Lakoff guy out of the room:

America – believe
health – important
president – question
states – united

Of course, those happy accidents are almost certainly helped along by cubic money paid to political consultants.

For you history buffs out there, this page is great fun

http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags/

The biggest word in the presidential terms leading up to the Civil War? “Consitution”.

Here’s a better idea from Joe McDonald. Sentence her to three months House Arrest and give a thousand Hours of Community Service. I think that might have more correctional value. What do you think?

Just added WitnessLA to the Blogroll at BH. Well done!

Yours is soooo 2002.

At any rate, I also appreciated the shout out for Witness LA… a good blog, nay, a VERY good blog.