{"id":7957,"date":"2012-09-07T16:16:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T23:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7957"},"modified":"2012-10-24T21:19:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T04:19:02","slug":"idiocracy-mitt-romneys-convention-speech-was-written-below-an-8th-grade-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7957","title":{"rendered":"Idiocracy: Mitt Romney&#8217;s Convention Speech Was Written Below An 8th Grade Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_test\" target=\"_blank\">Flesch\u2013Kincaid Grade Level test<\/a> is used extensively in the field of education to judge the readability level of various books and texts. It&#8217;s results reveal the education required to understand the text.<\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.online-utility.org\/english\/readability_test_and_improve.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">analysis<\/a> of the speech that Mitt Romney delivered at the Republican National Kvetch-a-Sketch came in at slightly below an eighth grade level (7.98). For comparison, After President Obama&#8217;s State of the Union Address, Fox News published a story that reported his Flesch\u2013Kincaid results at 8.4. They accompanied the story with this graphic:<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Pix\/Caps\/foxnation-sotu-dunce.jpg\" alt=\"Fox Nation\" \/><\/center><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Clearly the implication is that Obama is an idiot for having delivered a speech that only scored 8.4 on the Flesch\u2013Kincaid test. Therefore, Romney is even dumber for having scored only 7.98, and Fox will be posting an article saying so shortly. And if you believe that you&#8217;re even dumber than the congressional Tea Party Republicans who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7133\" target=\"_blank\">performed even lower<\/a> on a series of these tests conducted by the Sunlight Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>For the record, Obama&#8217;s speech at the Democratic National Convention scored well above the ninth grade level (9.59). That may account for why the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7940\" target=\"_blank\">ratings for Fox News<\/a> during the DNC were so depressed. Their audience wouldn&#8217;t have been able to understand the big, multisyllabic words that the President used. After all, studies have shown that Fox viewers are significantly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3409\" target=\"_blank\">more misinformed<\/a> than consumers of news from other sources. Which in turn may also explain why Fox viewers enjoyed Clint Eastwood&#8217;s speech more than any other at the RNC, including Romney&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Pix\/FoxNews\/eastwood-poll2.jpg\" alt=\"Clint Eastwood\" width=\"500\" \/><\/center><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> I also ran the a few more scores that might be of interest:<br \/>\nMichelle Obama: 7.81<br \/>\nAnn Romney: 6.25<br \/>\nBill Clinton: 10.46<br \/>\nClint Eastwood: 4.51<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Flesch\u2013Kincaid Grade Level test is used extensively in the field of education to judge the readability level of various books and texts. It&#8217;s results reveal the education required to understand the text. An analysis of the speech that Mitt Romney delivered at the Republican National Kvetch-a-Sketch came in at slightly below an eighth grade [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[183,1042,33,260],"class_list":["post-7957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","tag-barack-obama","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-fox-news","tag-mitt-romney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-24l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7133,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7133","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":0},"title":"Dumb Question: Is The Tea Party Making Congress Dumber?","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/23\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sunlight Foundation just released the results of a study that measures the scholastic grade level of speeches made by members of congress. The scale uses the Flesch-Kincaid test and is based on the length of words and sentences used. Among their findings are that... \"Congress now speaks at almost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6309,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6309","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":1},"title":"The End Of The Romney Campaign, Courtesy Of George Soros","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/30\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tea Party contingent of the right-wing Republican set has long regarded George Soros as the mastermind of every evil they imagine has been perpetrated in America for the last half century. It is full-on fixation that connects Soros to everything from the Holocaust to Global Warming. And, like most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29448,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29448","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":2},"title":"Sunday Funnies: Recently Uncovered Video Of Donald Trump&#8217;s Childhood","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/16\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump, the media-designated front-runner for the Republican nomination for president, is said to have attained this status due to his straight talk and authentic style of connecting with GOP voters. Of course, Trump's alleged lead is a myth that is exacerbated by shallow punditry and the media hunger for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-napoleon-e1449356576640.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-napoleon-e1449356576640.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-napoleon-e1449356576640.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6376,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6376","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":3},"title":"Fox News Poll: Obama Shines, Tea Party Whines","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a number of uber-conservative commentators who have arrived at the conclusion that Fox News has slithered down the rabbit hole to a Hades-flavored Wonderland of liberalism. They have convinced themselves that Fox has become as liberal as what they perceive the rest of the media to be. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7911,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7911","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":4},"title":"News From The Future: Viewers Tune Out Obama&#8217;s Convention Speech &#8211; Ratings Plummet","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/2\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Republican National Kvetch-a-Sketch wrapped up last Thursday with a speech by Mitt Romney that threatened to put the makers of Ambien out of business. The speech was mostly notable for what he left out. The television audience for Romney's address was less than spectacular. Nielsen reports that about 30\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8160,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8160","url_meta":{"origin":7957,"position":5},"title":"More Context Mangling By The Romney Camp: Joe Biden Edition","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/5\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Romney campaign has made grabbing snippets of President Obama's speeches and contorting their meaning the central strategy of his campaign. Yesterday they expanded their strategy to include Vice-President Joe Biden. Fox News and its community web site Fox Nation, leaped on Biden after he delivered a speech saying pretty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7957"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8294,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions\/8294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}