Which recent presidents used the most complex grammatical structures?

[oostevo]

A question a friend proposed to me:
Which two American Presidents since 1960 have used the most complex grammatical constructions? Not the current one, I'm guessing.


I thought I'd ask your opinions.
My response (to a very staunch Republican, by the way):
"Clinton and Gore"

[clydefrand]

1. Clinton and Carter

and of course Kennedy. Gore, of course, far outshines the chimp, but unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to hear more of his complex grammatical constructions. Maybe his speeches now will make up in some small way for his being denied the Presidency. The repugs certainly are being very critical of him nowadays. And they aren't critical unless they are scared!

[oostevo]

2. True, true

Actually, when speaking extemporaneously, Gore seems to become more complex, oddly enough.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Its not the Chimp, dats fer sure. He cannot even follow his prompter

much less his speech lessons/directions/instructions/therapy.

Da poor ting, bush stay lolo.

[LittleApple81]

3. I don't think Clinton used particularly "complex" structures, I would call

them correct structures. He never spoke over the heads of his audience, and that is what I would consider "complex".

[teach1st]

4. A little of topic

I originally posted this at http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=209343#209503">DU on 11/9/03. Your post reminded me of it

..for readability level (a rough test, which anyone can do using a word processor grammar checker):

I omitted the first few opening and the last paragraph of each speech:

I used the "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended" speech to compare to the Gore speech, "Freedom and Securty," given on November 9, 2003, because in my limited reading, it was the most complex speech I could remember Bush giving - I could easily be wrong there.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/iraq/20030501-15.html
http://www.moveon.org/gore/speech2.html

* The Bush speech is rated at approximately at a 9.5th grade reading level.
* The Gore speech is rated at approximately at a 15th grade reading level.

Gore's sentence complexity was rated twice as high and vocabulary complexity was higher, too.

By the way, the higher level writing is not necessarily a good thing for the Gore speech and for Gore. Although listening comprehension is usually higher than readng comprehension, it is still possible that a substantial number of Americans may not fully comprehend the Gore speech.

(One interesting note - the Bush speech most closely resembles an 1040EZ form in complexity when compared against standard documents. Except for vocabulary complexity, the Gore speech compares to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.)

[NWHarkness]

5. Bush Sr used complex grammarical constructions

I mean, they were gibberish, but they were complex.:P