Although not a declared candidate, Vice President Joe Biden speeches have the most complexity and word length of any other 2016 presidential contender, with real-estate mogul Donald Trump fairing the worst – speaking at around a seventh grade reading level, according to a new study.
Mr. Biden, who is currently contemplating a run for the highest office, tops the list for both word length (letters per word) and complexity (syllables per word) in his speeches, according to a review byMashoid, which analyzed recent speeches by the 2016 candidates. Mr. Biden is known for making off-the-cuff gaffs, however, his prepared remarks are often both effective and passionate.
“As a child, Biden had a terrible stutter, but he grew up to deliver powerful and heartfelt speeches,” theMashoid study said. “It’s the vice president’s tendency to blurt out foot-in-mouth remarks that sabotages him.”
The vice president speaks above a high-school level – the highest among any candidate. Ted Cruz, the Texas Senator comes in second, speaking at about an 11th grade level.
Mr. Trump ranks last in both speech complexity and reading level.
“Along with a propensity to blurt out inappropriate comments, he prefers simple sentence structures, overuses qualifiers such as “very” and “really,” and sticks to basic words,” the study said of Mr. Trump. “’I am a really smart guy,’ he told TIME magazine in 2011. And at the 2015 Republican presidential debate, he said, ’What I say is what I say.’”
Of the buzz words used by the candidates – Florida Senator Marco Rubio uses the word “change” nearly as often as President Barack Obama, the study found. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders references “climate change” at least 1.5 times per speech, the most of any candidate, and Mr. Cruz leads with the words “terror” and “faith” repeated multiple times in his stump speeches.
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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