PJ Media

PJ Mediahttps://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/09/05/both-sides-now/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usTue, 09 Jun 2026 22:20:49 -0400Both sides now<![CDATA[Word or tag cloud software has been used to visually represent a frequency count of terms in a given piece of text, providing a clue to the importance of certain ideas. Font sizes indicate the weight or emphasis on certain words. The word clouds of Sarah Palin and John McCain’s speeches at the convention make an interesting study in contrasts. Palin’s address is stocked with what I would call action or power words like ‘energy’, ‘oil’ and ‘reform’. She also uses the name of John McCain frequently. McCain by contrast hardly ever mentions himself in the third person. Remarkably, his speech has a lot of softer words such as ‘jobs’, ‘children’, ‘health’, ‘peace’. It is almost as if he had turned down the volume of political discourse to strike a conciliatory note. But both speeches also share common themes. One obvious pattern is a repetitive emphasis on the themes of ‘country’ and ‘America’, which are also the motifs of the campaign. (Hat tip to a reader who suggested this analysis)]]>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:21:20 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2008/09/05/both-sides-now-n186037