Software Spots Spin In Political Speeches

T.S. Ackerman writes "According to an article in NewScientist Tech, there is now software that can identify the amount of spin in a politician or candidate's speech. From the article, 'Blink and you would have missed it. The expression of disgust on former US president Bill Clinton's face during his speech to the Democratic National Convention as he says "Obama" lasts for just a fraction of a second. But to Paul Ekman it was glaringly obvious. "Given that he probably feels jilted that his wife Hillary didn't get the nomination, I would have to say that the entire speech was actually given very gracefully," says Ekman, who has studied people's facial expressions and how they relate to what they are thinking for over 40 years.' The article goes on to analyze the amount of spin in each of the candidates running for president, and the results are that Obama spins the most."

Comments

Obama spinning?

[tjstork]

Even though I'm a Republican, I have to concede that Obama is one of the most gifted speakers to come along for quite some time. He's an absolutely magnetic speaker and a great advocate for that which he believes, and when I watch him, I almost have to smack myself to snap out of it. I can't stand the guy's politics, but I am proud that he's an American.

Re:Obama spinning?

[torstenvl]

What policies do you disagree with?
- NOT firing our best Arab linguists when we're at war in the Middle East?
- Providing mandatory healthcare to children?
- Making healthcare affordable but optional for adults?
- Reforming the tax code so it doesn't take a graduate degree to know how much your bill should be?
- Investing in science and research so China doesn't kick our asses so handily in the next decade as they have in the past decade?
- Increasing funding for charter schools so that even poor people can have school choice?
- Moving race-based affirmative action toward a more socioeconomic-based affirmative action, so that his daughters are judged more fairly compared to a rural white boy with an underfunded school?
- Ending an immoral war by setting concrete timelines, but recognizing that they may have to be modified depending on the conditions on the ground?
- Reducing the incidence and unfairness of the death penalty, while understanding that certain heinous crimes deserve the full outrage of the nation?
- Better sex education, so that there are fewer unexpected pregnancies, and so that when there are unexpected pregnancies, the women know there are options BESIDES abortion?

Exactly what policy do you object to?

I can't think of a single reason to support McCain's platform unless a) you make over $250,000/year; AND b) you're of the mind that you should keep all of it, no matter the cost to your community and country.

Re:Obama spinning?

[torstenvl]

Then you're just, quite simply, un-American. It is the purpose of the Federal government to "promote the general welfare." It is our duty as citizens to protect each other from outside threats, and our duty as humans not to let the poor among us die in the streets.

The Republican party likes to talk about the Bible and responsibility. What happened to "love thy neighbor," and how is monetary greed anything but the shirking of responsibility?

There's only one man in the Bible to complain about the expectation that he was his brother's keeper. He seems like a pretty good metaphor for the Republican Party.

Re:Obama spinning?

[Terwin]

Even if I personally don't make over 250K/year, my employer does, and that means that I will be paying these higher taxes too.
Either I will need to do the work of people that they cannot afford to hire, or they will not be able to give me the wage that they otherwise could.

Think about it, how many companies that provide reasonable jobs can exist with revenue of less than 250K?

Also, can you name a single company (that is not in the process of going out of business) on any of the major stock exchanges that makes less than 250K? What happens to their stock prices when they suddenly need to pay more taxes? How about all those pensions and retirement accounts that are invested in the stock market?

Do you really think that the CEOs will pull that money out of their pockets?
It will come from all of us in the form of higher prices.

If you allow the government to mandate health care for any group, then they get to define what that health care entails. This will quickly be taken over by special interests, assuming they don't let the drug companies write the laws to begin with. Do you really want someone who is in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies to write the health care plan for your children? Sounds like a way to mandate all children to take a bunch of high-margin pills that either don't do any good, or may even turn out to be harmful in the long run... (How about ground-breaking new medical advances, do you want to watch your child die while waiting for the bureaucracy to decide that it is an OK procedure for them to pay for?)

Considering that all of these programs will be either run or set up by politicians, I don't see anything in your list that I would want the government to do for me.

Re:Spin = Good Rhetorical Argument

[b96miata]

because the "movement" won't be in office. The politician will.

"Yes we can" is a crap soundbite that sways people who listen to crap soundbites, and it also has the advantage of allowing every (potential) voter to fill in their own definition of what "we" can do, while sticking the polit. with zero accountability.

"I won't raise your taxes", or "I won't attempt to further restrict the right to bear arms" would be widely regarded as a campaign promise, and would be damaging if broken.

If you say nothing of substance, it's harder to be accused of lying.

This doesn't necessarily mean any use of "we" is bad, but your chosen examples are vastly different statements.

Re:Psychology is not an exact science

[Tom]

You should read up on Ekman. The guy is one of the top authorities on the subject. He has written a few books. Read one or two and check what his claims really are and how much substance and research he can put behind them.

In short: He doesn't claim he can read thoughts, he claims that emotions show up on your face. He also claims to have identified a short list of universal (world-wide, culture-independent) expressions that belong to specific emotions. He's travelled pretty much everywhere on the globe, from western society to primitive jungle tribes and made many thousands of photographs showing those expressions. And yes, the books describe in detail how the emotions were roused so they could be reasonably sure they got the proper one.

Like all mainstream media, the article simplifies things quite a lot. That doesn't mean the science behind it isn't correct.

Re:Subject

[dubl-u]

The algorithm does seem to consist primarily of a bunch of intuitions that David Skillicorn has had about what textual attributes correlate with spin.

And I'll note here that Skillicorn is a computer scientist, not a cognitive scientist. If we're just talking about his intuitions, then I'm not seeing why I should trust his over anybody else's.

He seems to hang a lot on Obama's use of "we" instead of "I". It seems to me that heavy use of "we" is exactly how community organizers would talk. Not because they're spinning, but because they're trained to generate collective action.

And heck, that's what I like about him. After 9/11, a great national tragedy, I wanted to serve, to help, but George Bush told me to go shopping. It was a bit of a letdown. This election, I'm really excited that both McCain and Obama truly believe in public service. But I think Obama's much better at getting people to actually do it.