Great Pivot By Mrs. Obama

[pricejj]

Originally Posted by manchambo

And how, in any event, could four years of single-digit inflation account for a 100% increase in gas prices?

I am thinking more about the price inflation of commodities (like oil, wheat, and corn), real estate and other assets. Also consider the price inflation of education, and real estate, etc.


So, while the Consumer Price Index (minus certain kinds of food and fuel) might only be increasing at about 3% per year. The price of clothes and consumer electronics (which aren't produced in the U.S.) is not what I'm concerned about.

[Requiem]

Prices of goods going up has a lot to do with drought.

[lonestar]

Originally Posted by ant1999e

When your purpose is "Smacking down these righties" and not an intelligent debate, you lose all credibility. Frankly you, your ignorant threads and demands for answers to stupid questions aren't worth anyone's time. We're all a little crazy here on the WRP. And I'm definitely no exception. But you've gone to an extremely low level. If your purpose was to be the "bane of our existence", you've failed. The only thing you've become is the next clown on ignore.

He is just a union schumck that could not hack it in the real world without one.

[Requiem]

^ You sucked at running a business and closed shop.

Jokes on you bad driver man.

[mhgaffney]

Originally Posted by manchambo

What are you talking about, massive inflation? It's been below three percent for most of the Obama presidency, and below four the entire time. http://inflationdata.com/inflation/i...tion_chart.htm. And how, in any event, could four years of single-digit inflation account for a 100% increase in gas prices?

Ever heard the phrase "monetization of the debt"?

It's happening as we speak. But...

to get the problem in perspective -- you must go back a century -- to the creation of the federal reserve in 1913.

Over the last 99 years the dollar has lost 95% of its value. I'd call that serious inflation.

Now when you consider that the fed was created to control inflation -- it's obvious the federal reserve system has been a huge failure.

Time to repeal the federal reserve act.

MHG

[elsid13]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

Ever heard the phrase "monetization of the debt"?

It's happening as we speak. But...

to get the problem in perspective -- you must go back a century -- to the creation of the federal reserve in 1913.

Over the last 99 years the dollar has lost 95% of its value. I'd call that serious inflation.

Now when you consider that the fed was created to control inflation -- it's obvious the federal reserve system has been a huge failure.

Time to repeal the federal reserve act.

MHG

Stick to predicting attacks on Iran.

[manchambo]

Originally Posted by pricejj

It's called massive inflation.




Wow, that was crude, but it's to be expected from a Socialist. The Dow dropped 2000 points after Obama entered office (after holding steady for the previous two months). The Dow's rise can attributed to Bernanke with QE1, QE2, Operation Twist, and hints at QE3.

The federal funds rate has been set at 0% throughout Obama's presidency, screwing U.S. citizens out of interest earnings, but creating an enormous windfalls for banks.

Let's address another part of this silliness. I am supposedly being screwed out of interest earnings when my mortgage is locked at thirty years just above four percent and I'm paying .9 percent on my car? If rates were higher I would earn more on interest payments but I would pay more too

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by manchambo

Let's address another part of this silliness. I am supposedly being screwed out of interest earnings when my mortgage is locked at thirty years just above four percent and I'm paying .9 percent on my car? If rates were higher I would earn more on interest payments but I would pay more too

There you go expecting republicans to understand simple arithmetic again.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

If the RNC has learned anything from Fox News, it's this:

If you want to communicate with the average republican voter, then you need to write at a fifth-grade level.



Michelle Obama's DNC Speech Written at 7 Grade Levels Above Ann Romney's

The First Lady's speech Tuesday was written at a 12th grade level - the highest in history among the wives of presidential nominees and far above Ann Romney's lowest mark of a 5th grade level


Although her husband has delivered some of the simplest State of the Union speeches over the last 75+ years - with all three written at an eighth grade level - Michelle Obama did not follow rhetorical suit on Tuesday evening.

One week after Ann Romney set a record for delivering a speech written at the lowest grade level in convention history by the wives of presidential nominees, Michelle Obama delivers a speech written at the highest ever grade level.

A Smart Politics review of prepared remarks delivered by the spouses of presidential nominees at national political conventions finds that Michelle Obama's 2012 speech to the DNC was written at seven grade levels above Ann Romney's as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.

The Flesch-Kincaid test is designed to assess the readability level of written text, with a formula that translates the score to a U.S. grade level. Longer sentences and sentences utilizing words with more syllables produce higher scores. Shorter sentences and sentences incorporating more monosyllabic words yield lower scores.

The First Lady's speech on Tuesday evening was delivered at a grade level of 12.84 - more than 3.5 grade levels above the next highest speech of the 10 previous prepared remarks delivered by wives of presidential nominees since the first such address in 1992 by Barbara Bush.

Ms. Obama also held the previous record with her 2008 speech with a grade level of 9.28.

The speech written at the third highest grade level by such spouses was by another Democrat, Teresa Kerry in 2004, at 9.20, followed by Elizabeth Dole at #4 in 1996 (8.51), Cindy McCain at #5 in 2008 (8.38), Hillary Clinton at #6 in 1996 (8.29), Barbara Bush at #7 in 1992 (7.99), Laura Bush at #8 in 2004 (7.77), Tipper Gore at #9 in 2000 (6.63), and Laura Bush at #10 in 2000 (6.46).

At the very bottom of the list - some 7+ grade levels below the First Lady - is Ann Romney.

The wife of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee gave a speech written at just a 5.80 grade level last Tuesday evening at the RNC.

Ann Romney's speech was packed with much shorter sentences than Michelle Obama's - coming in at less than half the average number of words per sentence (15.12) than the First Lady's (30.66).

A previous Smart Politics report highlighted how Ms. Romney's speech was extremely focused on the family vis-à-vis past speeches from the wives of nominees.

Consider how Romney delivers the following passage on wives and mothers, in her purported attempt to close the gender gap for her husband's campaign:

"You are the best of America. You are the hope of America. There would not be an America without you. Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises."

But when Michele Obama addressed the subject of women in her speech, she took a different tactical approach, incorporating much longer sentences into her speech, such as the following passage about the president's grandmother:

"And for years, men no more qualified than she was - men she had actually trained - were promoted up the ladder ahead of her, earning more and more money while Barack's family continued to scrape by."

In delivering their respective speeches, the end game of both spouses of the 2012 presidential nominees is to naturally sell their husbands to the millions of Americans watching them on television.

Consider the rhetoric Ann Romney chose in testifying as to the kind of leader her Mitt would be:

"This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America! ... Look into your hearts. This is our country. This is our future. These are our children and grandchildren. You can trust Mitt. He loves America. He will take us to a better place, just as he took me home safely from that dance. Give him that chance. Give America that chance."

The heavy peppering of short, staccato-style lines in Romney's remarks stands in opposition to the more drawn-out sentences written by the First Lady about her husband, like this:

"He's the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work, because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives."

And this:

"That's the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner nearly every night, patiently answering their questions about issues in the news, and strategizing about middle school friendships."

Speaking of the president, the First Lady's DNC speech was written at four grade levels above Barack Obama's State of the Union addresses in 2011 (8.1), 2012 (8.4), and 2010 (8.8).

Ms. Obama's speech is actually written at a higher grade level than all but 11 of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union addresses delivered since 1934.

As with all previous Smart Politics analyses of the readability scores of prepared remarks, it bears repeating that a simplistically written speech does not necessarily mean it is a poor speech, nor that a speech with longer sentences is necessarily superior.

What is interesting in this instance is the stark contrast in how the two political camps in the same election cycle rhetorically crafted their message through their spouses.

Whether or not one believes Ann Romney was speaking plainly, or speaking down to her target audience is one for the pundits to debate.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for DNC and RNC Speeches by the Spouses of Presidential Nominees

Spouse	Year	Reading Ease	Words per sentence	Grade Level
Michelle Obama	2012	57.60	30.66	12.84
Michelle Obama	2008	69.08	22.75	9.28
Teresa Kerry	2004	61.99	18.46	9.20
Elizabeth Dole	1996	61.79	15.56	8.51
Cindy McCain	2008	66.19	17.54	8.38
Hillary Clinton	1996	68.25	18.32	8.29
Barbara Bush	1992	70.75	18.51	7.99
Laura Bush	2004	67.44	15.77	7.77
Tipper Gore	2000	74.76	15.28	6.63
Laura Bush	2000	71.74	12.92	6.46
Ann Romney	2012	80.33	15.12	5.80

[Odysseus]

All the First ladies and candidate wives are good people.

Jill Biden is not listed.

I think Michelle Obama is one of the best First ladies in history. I wish Barack would learn from her and pay more attention to some of the details she points out.