Clouds of Words

How does the State of the Union address you heard last night compare to those of years past? What words are most often used in these kinds of speeches? Do the most frequently used words--and concepts--change over time?

If you find these to be intriguing questions, you'll want to take a look at this Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud, which graphically, and attractively, shows the most frequently used words in Presidential speeches from George Washington to George W. Bush. The most-used words in the State of the Union address of 1790 were "blessings," "expedient," and "requisite." Whereas last night "Iraq" and "terrorists" were the top words.

Looking at two famous inaugural addresses, Kennedy's "economic," and "strength" the most, whereas Lincoln's first inaugural used "constitution" most frequently.

If you're interested in how the "cloud" was constructed, there are notes on the website. And you can even download the open source software and make clouds of your own speeches.