Newt at Florida’s “Space Coast”: “By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American.” [TPM]

Eric J. Ostermeier — Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Department of Political Science, 2006; J.D., The University of Michigan Law School, 1995; Research Associate at the Humphrey School’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance — would like you to know that Barack Obama is dumbing down:

“My Message is Simple”: Obama’s SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year

Obama’s SOTU addresses have the lowest average Flesch-Kincaid score of any modern president; Obama owns three of the six lowest-scoring addresses since FDR

For the third consecutive State of the Union Address, Barack Obama spoke in clear, plain terms.

And for the third straight Address, the President’s speech was written at an eighth-grade level.

In Obama’s own words: “My message is simple.”

But was it too simplistic?

A Smart Politics study of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union Addresses since 1934 finds the text of Obama’s 2012 speech to have tallied the third lowest score on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, at an 8.4 grade level.

We thought Flesch-Kincaid was the condition that the Heimlich Maneuver resolves, but let’s set that aside.

Instead, we’d like to ask Dr. Eric a simple question: Have you ever written for radio?

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Finally we have a president who knows how to tie his tie!

Note the handsomely made pleat under the half-windsor knot. That is how it should be done, people! A tie is not meant to be smooth-fronted. The pleat, like the lapel button-hole that is there to allow the jacket to be closed up to the neck, is a holdover from when a tie was more like a cravat. Mind you, it helps to have a tie of this quality that will accept the knot correctly. Kudos on the pattern, too.

The trick is, as you tighten the knot, to pull the long end to one side, which will form the pleat correctly. Also to be noted is the perfect fit of the shirt collar and the exact amount of cuff showing. Plus the exquisitely tailored suit in a handsome dark blue.

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Over at NRO, John Hood revives an argument we haven’t heard for awhile:

A competent presidential campaign, one that could really pose a challenge to a sitting president with a massive war chest and organization, would never settle for the media spin that Mitt Romney had a 15 percent federal tax burden over the past two years.

A competent campaign, and candidate, would explain that Romney’s real federal tax rate on his investment income was more than 40 percent (being conservative, after deductions and such), since the revenue stream was subject to both a personal tax rate and the corporate tax rate.

Shall we? Let’s.

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And the spring is coming:

Let’s be honest: At this point in our life, we’ve seen dozens of State of the Union addresses. And we remember nothing about them. Except the Adderall part, where nobody can fucking sit still.

Up! Down! Up! Down! It’s like an interpretive dance of Republican primary polling.

But we love them nonetheless, which is why we welcome you to our SOTU Open Thread/Jazzercise Workout. Remember, the more you sweat, the more you can drink.

Our guest columnist is Ralph Shortey, Republican state senator from the Great State of Oklahoma.

STATE OF OKLAHOMA

2nd Session of the 53rd Legislature (2012)

SENATE BILL 1418

By: Shortey

AS INTRODUCED

An Act relating to food; prohibiting the manufacture or sale of food or products which use aborted human fetuses; providing for codification; and providing an effective date.

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