The sentences of Sarah Palin, diagrammed

[Guest]

l

[_CaliforniaKid]

Since we're diagramming, here's a diagram showing "How Sarah Palin Survived Ninety Minutes Without Spontaneously Combusting."

Also relevant to the present discussion is David Letterman's highly informative Sarah Palin Debate Recap.

On a much more serious note, here is a video that I thought made some interesting points about Palin's religious beliefs. True, it's a little too alarmist, and in my opinion not everything these folks are worried about is sound. But I was raised in the Assemblies of God, and can attest to the fact that the linking of the end times and Zionism has very real political consequences: Pentecostals typically unquestioningly support Israel in everything it does. I can also attest to the fact that Russia is often viewed as Magog and is expected to play a major role in end-times events. Seeing Putin as potentially "the beast" of Revelation might be about as realistic as some liberals' conception of him as a champion of democracy, but it also can't be constructive in the long term from a policymaking perspective. I also thought it was interesting-- though obviously no big deal-- that Palin's former pastor sees Alaska as an end-times "refuge state". If Romney had been chosen as the nominee, I wonder if we'd be having a conversation about the possibility that the Mormon armies will pour out of Utah on the eve of our nation's collapse in order to save our democracy.

[_dartagnan]

Debate analysis: Palin spoke at 10th-grade level, Biden at eighth

(CNN) -- An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night's debate between the vice presidential candidates.

The analysis by the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor said Palin, governor of Alaska and the GOP vice presidential nominee, used the passive voice in 8 percent of her sentences, far more than the 5 percent used by the Democratic senator from Delaware.

The analysis noted that the "passive voice can be used to deflect responsibility; Biden used active voice when referring to [Vice President Dick] Cheney and [President] Bush; Palin countered with passive deflections."

"It obscures the doer of the action," said Language Monitor President Paul Payack, an independent with no political affiliation.

The two candidates were nearly even in total number of words spoken. The normally voluble Biden restrained his tendency to ramble by uttering just 5,492 words during the 90-minute debate, versus 5,235 for Palin, Payack said.

In last week's debate between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, Obama spoke 8,068 words during the 90-minute event, while McCain spoke 7,150, Payack said.

Thursday night's debate between the vice presidential candidates "was more collegial, thinking out loud as opposed to just hammering points," Payack said in trying to explain the difference. "It was a much calmer style."

His analysis ranked the candidates' speech on several other levels, too. Here's the breakdown:

Grade level: Biden, 7.8; Palin, 9.5 (Newspapers are typically written to a sixth-grade reading level.)

Sentences per paragraph: statistically tied at 2.7 for Biden and 2.6 for Palin.

Letters per word: tied at 4.4.

Ease of reading: Biden, 66.7 (with 100 being the easiest to read or hear), versus 62.4 for Palin.

The analysis said Abraham Lincoln spoke at an 11th-grade level during his seven debates in 1858 against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in their race for a Senate seat from Illinois.

But higher grade level doesn't necessarily mean better sentence, Payack said. He pointed to Palin's second-to-last sentence in the debate, which the formula put at a grade level of 18.3:

"What I would do, also, if that were ever to happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington," Palin said.

"When she said it, it sounded good, but on paper it's a completely different animal," Payack said. "It's like, what is that?"

But Biden had his own challenging moments, such as this 32-word gem, rated grade 15.6: "The middle class under John McCain's tax proposal, 100 million families, middle-class families, households to be precise, they got not a single change; they got not a single break in taxes."

Payack praised the usually longer-winded Biden for showing restraint here. "In a typical Joe Biden thing, this sentence would serve as a launching point to even more complex and convoluted statements. Last night, he was particularly reserved, and you only had to be a college graduate to decipher it, according to the readability statistics."

[_Jason Bourne]

While I did not cheer McCain's VP pick from the beginning the savage rage where by she is being attacked in the media and in the looney left blogs is almost enough to make me support the pick. I was leaning away from McCain/Palin but am reconsidering.

[_GoodK]

While I did not cheer McCain's VP pick from the beginning the savage rage where by she is being attacked in the media and in the looney left blogs is almost enough to make me support the pick. I was leaning away from McCain/Palin but am reconsidering.

Is it savage rage, or savage laughter?

I mean, she is the number one pick among the SNL cast members.

[_Jason Bourne]

I mean, she is the number one pick among the SNL cast members.

No more than Hillary Clinton has been.

[_krose]

Quote by Rich Lowry of National Review:

I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.

Is that a banana in your pocket Rich? You betcha!

[_dartagnan]

I mean, she is the number one pick among the SNL cast members.

Case in point. This election will be determined by the media because it has such animpact on the uneducated morons in this country, for which there are plenty.

[_GoodK]

the uneducated morons in this country, for which there are plenty.

And that's not even including the uneducated morons living abroad!

[_dartagnan]

Its OK GoodK. You said it yourself. You don't have to be educated because you've got "wealth."