Biden is angry

Joe Biden is mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more.

We have no idea what it is exactly that has angered him so.

But we must say how much we are impressed: the form in his one-fingered salute is perfectly executed.

Team McCain's Magic Quadrant

Earlier we had a post showing Team Obama's Magic Quadrant Breakdown of Election 2008.

Now for the Magic Quadrant of the election as seen by the Republicans. The GOP uses the traditional Magic Quadrant definitions for each axis, Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision, with the overall measure being who can bring reform to Washington (original Magic Quadrants were developed by research and consulting firm Gartner).

In choosing Sarah Palin, John McCain has made clear that his overarching theme is one of government reform, trying to steal the rug out from under Obama on "change".

Who has brought about reform in government? Who has worked in bi-partisan ways to bring change? Who has bucked their own party to get things done?

For our purposes here, we will focus on the least known of the candidates, letting Beldar present the case for Palin as an accomplished reformer.

Palin-Biden debate, more than words

Well, here we go.

According to CNN, Sarah Palin spoke at a higher grade level than Joe Biden.

(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. ...

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.

Perhaps most intriguing, our word count differs markedly from that in the article -- and contra our count has Biden out-wording Palin.

Baffling.

And while we are most certainly not a global language monitoring service expert, Google Docs does provide some Grammar Tools. Based upon the transcript we have used, here's what it has to say:

Biden:
Flesch Reading Ease: 74.43
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.00

Palin:
Flesch Reading Ease: 69.65
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.00

Matches up at least fairly well with the global language monitoring service expert.

And from wikipedia, a little background on the Flesch Reading Ease score and the Flesch-Kincaid Gradel Level score:

The Flesch/Flesch–Kincaid Readability Tests are readability tests designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. There are two tests, the Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures (word length and sentence length), they have different weighting factors, so the results of the two tests correlate imperfectly: a text with a higher score on the Reading Ease test over another text may have a lower score on the Grade Level test. Both systems were devised by Rudolf Flesch.

In the Flesch Reading Ease test, higher scores indicate material that is easier to read; lower numbers mark more-difficult-to-read passages.

The "Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level Formula" translates the 0–100 score to a U.S. grade level, making it easier for teachers, parents, librarians, and others to judge the readability level of various books and texts.

We have no idea how much a global language monitoring service charges someone like CNN to perform their service -- but we would have done it for much cheaper.

But then again, if we got the word count wrong (and we have no reason to think the global language monitoring service expert is wrong, and the error could have been ours or the transcript from which we were working), then perhaps CNN spent the money wisely.

[VIMH: Are you going to go back and check your word count?]
It is under consideration.

UPDATE: We went back and did a recount. There were some dimpled chads, including one section that was clearly Biden speaking, though labeled as Palin. New totals...

Palin: 7520 (vs 7734 in first count)
Biden: 7183 (vs 7419 in the first count)

What accounts for the difference other than the misattribution? Well, the transcript has been updated, with a few notes in the current version. We have no idea what changed and how that may or may not have affected the counts.

As to the word counts in the CNN article, which not only indicate that Biden spoke more words than Palin, but also indicates a couple thousand fewer words by each candidate, we have no idea what the difference is. Perhaps they didn't count opening and closing statements?

It will continue as a mystery...

Your best bet, though, will probably be to trust the global language monitoring expert. He doesn't get paid the big bucks for nothing.

Palin-Biden debate, just words

Here are some stats and graphics from tonight's VP debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, using this transcript.

First, how many words did each candidate speak in the debate?

Sara Palin: 7,734

Joe Biden: 7,419

(UPDATE: see updated numbers in this post)

We won't pretend we aren't surprised that Sarah Palin got more words in than Joe Biden. We wish we had placed a very large bet in Vegas on this, surely those would have been very, very good odds.

Second, here are word clouds created from the transcript for each candidate.

Biden:

Palin:

(click images to enlarge)

UPDATE: OK, yeah, she asked for it...how many words did Gwen Ifill speak in the debate?

Gwen Ifil: 1,734

And the word cloud?

Ifill:

All word clouds created with Wordle

Biden and pit bulls, part five

Danger is his middle name:

If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden said. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are..."

He was forced down by global warming a snow storm.

OK, no rest for the weary!

You know what they say the difference is between a pit bull and Joe Biden?

One yanks on his chain when you take him for a walk.

And the other yanks your chain thinking you won't notice ... or won't care because, "heh, that's our Joe".

Previously...

One has a diet consisting of dog food.

And the other dines consistently on his size 12 loafers.

...

One is by nature a creature that needs to be kept on a very tight and short leash.

And the other licks its own privates.

...

One is a relentless attack dog who can be trained to take out your enemies.

And the other is a six term Senator who can be counted on to bite the hand that feeds him.

...

You need a muzzle to shut one of them up.

And the other you need to let outside to go poop.

Biden and pit bulls, part four

Biden, on what makes a leader:

"Part of what being a leader does is to instill confidence is to demonstrate what he or she knows what they are talking about and to communicating to people ... this is how we can fix this," Biden said. "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'look, here's what happened.'"

Now we would hate to say that Biden doesn't act the part of a leader and instills no confidence.

But he leaves us no choice.

Roosevelt, the stock market crash and televisions? Captain Ed helps demonstrate that Biden does not know what he is talking about.

And away we go...

You know what they say the difference is between a pit bull and Joe Biden?

One has a diet consisting of dog food.

And the other dines consistently on his size 12 loafers.

Previously…

One is by nature a creature that needs to be kept on a very tight and short leash.

And the other licks its own privates.

...

One is a relentless attack dog who can be trained to take out your enemies.

And the other is a six term Senator who can be counted on to bite the hand that feeds him.

...

You need a muzzle to shut one of them up.

And the other you need to let outside to go poop.

Biden is no pit bull, part three

Here’s Biden’s latest:

Biden was asked by a voter: "Wind and solar are flourishing here in Ohio, so why are you supporting clean coal?"

Biden replied: "We're not supporting 'clean coal.' Guess what. China's building two every week. Two dirty coal plants. And it's polluting the United States. It's causing people to die. ... China is burning three hundred years of bad coal unless we figure out how to clean their coal up. Because it's going to ruin your lungs and there's nothing we can do about it. No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they're going to build them over there make 'em clean because they're killing you."

Of course, that’s not exactly on message in terms of Obama's clean coal position. Of course. Of course. It's Biden afterall.

OK, so this list will undoubtedly grow by leaps and bounds should Biden continue to be allowed to access to a microphone … so we are going to keep a running list.

You know what they say the difference is between a pit bull and Joe Biden?

One is by nature a creature that needs to be kept on a very tight and short leash.

And the other licks its own privates.

Previously…

One is a relentless attack dog who can be trained to take out your enemies.

And the other is a six term Senator who can be counted on to bite the hand that feeds him.

…

You need a muzzle to shut one of them up.

And the other you need to let outside to go poop.

Fall in line, Joe

Biden with Katie Couric:

Asked about the negative tone of the campaign, and this ad in particular, during an interview broadcast Monday by the "CBS Evening News," Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said he disapproved of it.

"I thought that was terrible, by the way," Biden said.

Asked why it was done, he said: "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we'd have never done it."

A momentary lapse by Biden, of course. Biden was quickly reminded that he doesn’t have to fall in love with Team Obama ads, he just has to fall in line:

[I]n the statement issued by the Obama campaign, Biden said he had never seen the ad and only read press reports of it.

"Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain's ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize," Biden said in the statement.

We paraphrased Sarah Palin’s pit bull joke last week in the football fan post. We tried to be generous and speak generally of politicians, rather than singling out Joe Biden.

But we simply cannot cover for him any longer. So…

You know what they say the difference is between a pit bull and Joe Biden?

You need a muzzle to shut one of them up.

And the other you need to let outside to go poop.

We could probably also add another line of thought…

One is a relentless attack dog who can be trained to take out your enemies.

And the other is a six term Senator who can be counted on to bite the hand that feeds him.

There's a flag on the play

Obama fumbled the ball here:

Barack Obama has put the Pennsylvania Republican delegates here in stitches over getting the name of the Penn State University mascot wrong today.

Not what you want to be doing in a state where the GOP is hammering you hard for being out of touch.

To most sports fans, they're the Nittany Lions.

Obama, during a stop in Pennsylvania today, called them the "Nitally lions" as he called on someone during a question-and-answer session.

But no matter, football fans would still rather catch a game with Obama than McCain:

WASHINGTON - People would rather watch a football game with Barack Obama than with John McCain — but by barely the length of a football.

Obama was the pick over McCain by a narrow 50 percent to 47 percent, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Friday that generally mirrored each presidential candidate's strengths and weaknesses with voters.

This is good news for Obama. No doubt. It is very similar to the “who do you want to have a beer with” criteria that we have pointed out a number of times. Any time you can connect with voters on this kind of personal level (though a sleepover is a little too personal), you’re doing good.

Not being an Obama fan, we find this disturbing from an election standpoint.

But honestly they really had to come up with a new category because the beer comparison is unfair in this election. Cindy McCain owns a beer distributorship. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to have a beer with the candidate whose wife could hook you up with free beer for life?

Then again, and maybe this is just us, but what football fan wouldn’t want to catch a game with the candidate whose wife could hook you up with free beer for life?

Oh, right. Upon further review, “football fans” may be a stretch:

"With McCain, I have such an age difference," said Smith of the Arizona senator, who is 72. But with Obama, 47, he said, "If things went well with the conversation, the football game would be forgotten. There'd be a lot of back and forth."

Sounds like we’re really talking about non-football watching ninnies who wouldn’t know a Nitally from a Nittany who would be willing to use football as an excuse to cozy up to the political celebrity. And of course the feeling is mutual … Obama is a politician who would use football to cozy up to voters. Not that that is unique to Obama. In fact...

THE REAL FOOTBALL FAN IN THE RACE: Like any big football fan, Joe Biden can’t make up his mind who his favorite team is. Right? Real football fans are big fans of lots of teams? (h/t Hugh Hewitt)

Although Biden said he was a Steelers fan in a meeting with the team's coach Mike Tomlin on August 29, he later said in a September 8 visit to a Green Bay bar outside of Lambeau Field that he'd been a Packers fan since grade school.

Today he added three more favorites to the list -- the Eagles, the Colts and the Giants.

As he looked at the jersey of former Philadelphia Eagle Reggie White, Horrigan said he had heard Biden was an Eagles fan.

Biden said yes, adding, "I used to be a Colts fan before they moved to Baltimore."

The loquacious Blue Hen said he stayed up late to watch the Monday night football game between the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

"My wife is a die-hard Eagles fan, so we watch every Eagles game," Biden said. "Matter of fact, I was really tired Tuesday morning."...

But Biden then whispered, "I'm not allowed to say this, but I also like the Giants."

You know what they say the difference is between a pit bull and a political candidate claiming to be a football fan?

You need a muzzle to shut one of them up.

And the other you need to let outside to go poop.

Sleepover!

(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) - Joe Biden came up with an interesting metaphor tonight.

When telling the story of how his granddaughters had a slumber party with Barack Obama’s daughters during the week of the Democratic National Convention, Biden equated it to what he says Americans want.

“I believe that's a metaphor, a metaphor for what the country is looking for. They're looking for a sleepover with people they like!”

This is problematic on a number of levels.

Not least of which is the Obama campaign’s revelation that they are bedwetters.

And of course, Biden’s metaphor is just a variation on the same theme that “who would you want to have a beer with” represents.

But with the beer replaced by pj's.

Let’s up the metaphor alert from problematic to disturbing.

And from Politico:

UPDATE: Asked what Biden meant, spokesman David Wade clarifies (?): "Could you imagine a sleepover with Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Phil Gramm and George Bush? I couldn't either."

True. Because they’re adults who outgrew sleepovers some time ago.

But apparently David Wade can imagine Joe Biden (and Obama) showing up on our doorstep with a sleeping bag and a toothbrush.

Obama-Biden ‘08
Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board!

It's Biden

Barack Obama has selected Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his Vice Presidential running mate.

Sure, you're likely going to hear all sorts of analysis as to why he's great (foreign policy gravitas) and why he's awful (ultimate Washington insider).

And of course, you'll also likely hear how Biden is known for his many gaffes. Perhaps Obama is attempting to put someone on the ticket who will make him look good by comparison -- though we would contend that it will be a close call.

But one thing we are sure you are going to be reminded of -- Biden's first love, his own voice. Obama appears to have found his equal in this regard.

But just why are we so sure that you will be reminded of this last point?

Because we have become aware of a soon-to-be-released book by Joe Biden, and we have acquired this proof copy of the book cover:

Our sources have also provided us with a photo of Biden delivering his first manuscript to the publisher:

(AUGUST 23, 2008) -- Democratic vice presidential
candidate, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) delivers
the manuscript of the first chapter of his
forthcoming book, In My Own Words to his
publisher on Saturday, less than 24 hours after being
named by Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama for the number two spot.