Key meaningless political terms in the VP debate

As the election gets closer, I can’t help but notice more meaningless political words coming out. These are words politicians use without understanding the meaning of the word, or at least not using the word in the correct way.

This makes the word or phrase take on a new meaning that helps the person who is using the word. For example, using the word “freedom” will strike certain emotions in people without the politician needing to use the word correctly.

Tag cloud of meaningless political words, the larger are more dangerous

I came up with a list of meaningless words (with some help from a post at DoubleThinkBlog and one at KVNUForThePeople), and I put them in a tag cloud-style grid with the most construed and misused words being the largest.

I also tallied how often some of those words were used in the recent vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

___________________________________

 

Tally of key terms in VP debate:

Change: Palin – 18, Biden – 22, Maverick: Palin – 6, Biden – 9

Freedom: Palin – 5, Biden – 1, Patriot: Palin – 3, Biden – 2

Rights: Palin – 2, Biden – 7, Democracy: Palin – 3, Biden – 1

Terror: Palin – 3, Biden – 5, Security: Palin – 3, Biden – 3

Equal: Palin – 1, Biden – 0, Victory: Palin – 2, Biden – 0

Experience: Palin – 4, Biden – 0, War on…: Palin – 2, Biden – 0

Total “Victories”: Biden – 4, Palin – 7, Tie – 1

“Change” was by far the most used term during the debate, but there were questions about change, so that statistic was pumped up. Biden used the word “maverick” more than Palin did, and he never mentioned experience.

Also note that:

• “equal” includes “equality”
• “terror” includes “terrorist” and “terrorism”
• “patriot” includes “patriotic”