Tag clouds from the Democratic debate.

These seem meaningful, especially if you're into woozy, intuitive impressionism. (Nice, clear PDF here.) Make what you will of the particular words that a particular candidate repeats -- like Obama and "women" and Clinton and "president" -- but what I noticed is the propensity to repeat words. I think that using a more varied vocabulary -- producing a tag cloud with more tiny words -- is a sign of subtlety of mind and intelligence. Who wins by this measure? Why, Dennis Kucinich. Of course, I know plenty of really smart people who end up in a position that is too far left for the Presidency, but still, the guy deserves some credit. Now, it may simply be a candidate who knows he can't win has more freedom to range from a pre-set formulation of his message.

Or it may just be that tag clouds are absurd. Hmmm, well let me make a tag cloud of the current front page of my blog as if that means something about me:

america american around asked attack blog calls campaign candidate clinton court democrats feel firedoglake goes going hillary important iraq judge law life lot man maybe money mrs obama oh people person political post president question really richardson second seems someone something sort taking talking things think wants war world years

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