Linguistic Analysis of Candidates

The race for the White House in 2012 has begun, as have key congressional primary races in 2010. Assessing their conservatism may be as simple as counting the frequency of their references to conservative concepts in their speeches and writings.

Potential Republican candidates for president include:

1. Jeb Bush
2. Mike Huckabee
3. Sarah Palin
4. Mitt Romney

as a baseline, John McCain can also be analyzed linguistically.

Key congressional candidates facing primary challenges include:

1. Arlen Specter

The 20 key conservative terms are:

1. Bureaucracy (search on "bureaucra")
2. Death tax
3. Deregulation (search on "dereg")
4. Dumb down
5. Elitism (search on "elit")
6. Free enterprise/market (search on "free ")
7. Grassroots
8. Homeschool (sometimes hyphenated)
9. Illegal alien
10. Meritocracy
11. Phonics
12. Politically correct (also political correctness)
13. Privatize (search on "privatiz")
14. Pro-life
15. Property right
16. Quota
17. Self-defense (search on "self")
18. Self-indulgence
19. Small business
20. Victimization

## Analysis[edit]

Candidate  | Total  | Bureaucracy  | Death tax  | Deregulation  | Dumb down  | Elitism  | Free enterprise/market  | Grassroots  | Homeschool  | Illegal alien  | Meritocracy  | Phonics  | Politically correct  | Privatize  | Pro-life  | Property right  | Quota  | Self-defense  | Self-indulgence  | Small business  | Victimization

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McCain's CPAC Speech[1] | 5 | 1  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 2  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 2  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0
Palin's RNC Speech[2] | 2 | 0  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 1  | 0
Huckabee's RNC Speech[3] | 2 | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 1  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0
Duncan Hunter's CPAC Speech[4] | 2 | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 2  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0
Senator Arlen Specter's Speech[5] | 0 | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 2  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0
Giuliani's RNC Speech[6] | 0 | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0  | 0

## References[edit]

1. ↑ McCain at 2008 CPAC
2. ↑ Palin's Acceptance Speech at the Republican National Convention
3. ↑ Huckabee's Speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention
4. ↑ Duncan Hunter's Speech at the 2007 CPAC
5. ↑ Senator Arlen Specter
6. ↑ Giulani's Speech to 2008 RNC