Presidential wannabes got an interesting newsflash this week: Drop the fancy words and you might attract the masses.
The Boston Globe analyzed the announcement speeches of 19 presidential contenders and found that those who keep it simple do best.
The billionaire Donald Trump, for instance, talks to voters in a way that can be understood by a fourth-grader and tops the Republican polls. Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson — a guy who has separated conjoined twins, for crying out loud! — speaks at the sixth-grade level. He ranks No. 2 in many Republican polls.
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, meanwhile, used among the fanciest language in the Republican field, The Globe found. A 10th-grader can comprehend his vocabulary and syntax, and yet he ranks so low in the polls that CNN didn’t invite him the join the undercard debate last month.
In all seriousness, there are many factors that contribute to a candidate’s success. But The Globe analysis is fun to ponder. Experts don’t seem surprised by the results. In the Twitter and soundbite age, candidates need to communicate in short bursts to get our attention. (Trump excels at that: “I’m really rich.” His critics are either “dumb,” “morons” or “losers.”)
Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s speeches can be understood by eighth-graders. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ exhortations to rein in Wall Street hit a higher level — high-school sophomores, The Globe’s Matt Viser reports.
The Globe used the so-called Flesch-Kincaid readability test, which analyzes word choice and sentence structure to produce grade-level rankings of speech.
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