Obama State of the Union Adress registers as 8th grade reading level material

[Golden Applesauce]

Not being well versed in a particular topic doesn't require that the language be 'dumbed down' by measure of sentence and word length, though.
It is simply a matter of not using jargon and defining terms not likely to have been encountered by the audience.

There's a very real cognitive load associated with parsing longer sentences.  English (or any other natural language) has unbounded lookahead.  That's problematic, because it means that you could potentially need to wait all the way until the end of the sentence to even figure out which part of speech the first word was, which requires keeping the entire sentence in working memory, unparsed, for as long as it takes they guy to finish saying all of the words.

Shorter sentences put a cap on this memory management (mostly; you still need additional context to resolve sentences like "They are hunting dogs."), which means that the listener can spend more brainpower thinking about what is being said, as opposed to merely parsing it.  Given that the speech is televised and there's no way to know or control how many things are competing for the home viewers' attention (cooking, kids running around, whatever) it's common sense to make your speech require as little dedicated cognition as possible.

was this meant to address the point i was making?

Yes.  Although, I think I might have misjudged what the point that you were making was.

[Cain]

The more important fact, being missed ITT, is who cares about the SOTU?  It's bullshit, filler for DC gossips, propagandizing for policy twerps. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The more important fact, being missed ITT, is who cares about the SOTU?  It's bullshit, filler for DC gossips, propagandizing for policy twerps.

It made a cool drinking game when Bush 43 was in office. 

Just saying.

[LMNO]

The more important fact, being missed ITT, is who cares about the SOTU?  It's bullshit, filler for DC gossips, propagandizing for policy twerps.

I remember RAW writing that what qualifies as "information" is inverse to the amount of predictability in a signal; as an example, he said a political speech has very low information.  I think the SOTU makes his case.

[Scribbly]

I did a lot of speech analysis in my dissertation. From what I remember, shorter snappier sentences evoke a greater sense of urgency and energy. Repetition of key words and phrases is paramount, and everything should be vague enough that it could be interpreted to mean any number of things; which means avoiding specifics and focusing on intangibles.

Obama's election campaign was full of lots of perfect examples of this. Hope! Change! Yes We Can!

[Cain]

The more important fact, being missed ITT, is who cares about the SOTU?  It's bullshit, filler for DC gossips, propagandizing for policy twerps.

It made a cool drinking game when Bush 43 was in office. 

Just saying.

Bush 43 was special.  In many senses of the word.

I remember RAW writing that what qualifies as "information" is inverse to the amount of predictability in a signal; as an example, he said a political speech has very low information.  I think the SOTU makes his case.

Well, yeah.  It's not information: it's propaganda.  Lets get the voters all fired up by talking a big talk about jobs, and killing Bin Laden, and jobs and stuff! It's a campaign speech.

Honestly, the world would be better off if it ignored all such speeches entirely, and just focused on what political actors actually do.

[Cramulus]

Honestly, the world would be better off if it ignored all such speeches entirely, and just focused on what political actors actually do.

This!

No, he's not a liberal

This is a wall street big business president.

Yes, now soldiers can kiss, that's awesome, and I guess it's a cultural victory.

No, he's not "saving the middle class".

Oh wait, RAH! RAH! Jobs! Bin Laden! Flags!

[Triple Zero]

I remember RAW writing that what qualifies as "information" is inverse to the amount of predictability in a signal; as an example, he said a political speech has very low information.  I think the SOTU makes his case.

Originally formulated by Claude Shannon, founder of Information Theory. The inverse of the predictability of a signal is called its "entropy" (in the Information Theory sense of the word--parallels with the physics term). Among other things it explains why an optimally compressed/encoded signal is statistically indistinguishable from random white noise. You may know his name from the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem used in signal processing.

Checking his Wikipedia article, seems he was one of those really awesome scientists, I should read up some more about him:

Outside of his academic pursuits, Shannon was interested in juggling, unicycling, and chess. He also invented many devices, including rocket-powered flying discs, a motorized pogo stick, and a flame-throwing trumpet for a science exhibition[citation needed]. One of his more humorous devices was a box kept on his desk called the "Ultimate Machine", based on an idea by Marvin Minsky. Otherwise featureless, the box possessed a single switch on its side. When the switch was flipped, the lid of the box opened and a mechanical hand reached out, flipped off the switch, then retracted back inside the box. Renewed interest in the "Ultimate Machine" has emerged on YouTube and Thingiverse. In addition he built a device that could solve the Rubik's cube puzzle.[4]

He is also considered the co-inventor of the first wearable computer along with Edward O. Thorp.[19] The device was used to improve the odds when playing roulette.

Oh wait, RAH! RAH! Jobs! Bin Laden! Flags!

Hey, there is no evidence he was behind the death of Jobs.

[Doktor Howl]

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html

Ah, the good old days.   

[Cain]

Needed more discussion about his tan suit IMO

[Cramulus]

SIRI, GIVE ME AN EXTREME CLOSEUP OF THE AMERICAN FLAG LAPEL PIN

[Doktor Howl]

Needed more discussion about his tan suit IMO

I am just enjoying reading people talk about how awful Obama was, through the lens of HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCKism.

[Doktor Howl]

Most "serious" news registers at around that level, as well.

Tabloids register at effectively the reading level of a 9 year old.

Pretty fucking highbrow, considering their audience

You don't have to jump very high, that's true.

He could have just stood there grunting and whistling, and he'd have had 90% of the nation in his pocket.

PROPHECY

[Juana]

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html

Ah, the good old days.   

Right?? Trump's shit is absolutely at, like, a 3rd-4th grade level.

[The Wizard Joseph]

Most "serious" news registers at around that level, as well.

Tabloids register at effectively the reading level of a 9 year old.

Pretty fucking highbrow, considering their audience

You don't have to jump very high, that's true.

He could have just stood there grunting and whistling, and he'd have had 90% of the nation in his pocket.

PROPHECY

Prophets gonna prophecy.
This ain't the first.
It will surely not be the las... 
Oh yeah he's dead and shit.