How Liberal Have State Of The Union Speeches Been

Political Science Professor John Sides of George Washington University explains the chart put together by political scientist Benjamin Lauderdale of the London School of Economics.

This kind of quantitative text analysis does not always work well, but the results here make a lot of sense. Speeches by Democratic presidents (blue) are to the left; speeches by Republican Presidents (red) are to the right. We already knew this, but it gives some confidence that we can trust the more interesting patterns within each of the parties.

On the Democratic side, first-term Clinton is slightly further to the left than second-term Clinton or Obama, but mostly the Democrats are very consistent over time.

On the Republican side, there are two events that stand out. The 1991 State of the Union by George H.W. Bush — during the first Gulf War — is further to the right than any of the preceding speeches, or indeed than his election-year speech in 1992, which is the furthest left of any Republican speech. The first George W. Bush speech in 2001 is similar to the speeches given by George H.W. Bush and by Reagan, but after 9/11 his speeches are consistently much further to the right than previous Republican speeches.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.