Obama's Second Inaugural by the numbers [View all]

[garthranzz]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/21/president-obamas-second-inaugural-address-by-the-numbers/

2,114 — The number of words the president used. He used 2404 in 2009.
18.5 — The number of minutes Obama spoke. The president started his address about 11:53 a.m. and ended at 12:12 p.m.

Lincoln's second was 703 words and took 7-8 minutes to deliver.

Some interesting word comparisons:
Lincoln's Frequency: 11 war; 8 God (including Divine, God's, Lord); 4 union; 3 interest; 3 offenses; 3 right; 3 woe; 3 slaves or slavery; 2 conflict or war-seeking
There are other key words, but that gives a general sense.

Obama's Frequency (again, there may be synonyms or variants not included):
11 people; 10 time; 7 together; 7 American (4 Americans) (5 America); 6 citizens; 6 journey;

(country, equal, freedom, occur 6 times, but some of that is in the context of quotes)

6 believe or belief (1 faith); 5 creed; 5 liberty; 4 future generation; 4 God (1 authority - context?); 3 peace; 3 principles; 2 duty; 2 rights; 2 justice (responsibility or responsibly 2)

Of course, there are others, and the context matters, but I find this of interest. (No, I didn't count them; I used a program.)

In both cases there is a strong spiritual (I prefer that word to "religious" here, because in both the implication is either non-sectarian or an American faith) element, and a strong emphasis on "union" or "together" or "people" - terms meant to be synonymous I think. Also, while Lincoln's resolves the past, Obama's is a resolve for the future - appropriately, based on context and thus word choice.