Didn't Like Obama's Oval Office Speech? It's 'Cause You're Too Dumb

Chris Field | June 17, 2010 9:06 AM

Everyone from Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh has criticized President Obama's Oval Office speech. The Left hated it because he didn't push the progressive line hard enough -- take over BP, end all drilling, sacrifice oil executives to Gaia, whatever -- while the Right hated it because it was typical Obama bilge.

But what we now know, courtesy of CNN, the real reason the nation didn't like the speech: Americans are too stupid to understand the wisdom and rhetoric of The One.

President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.

Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.

Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence "added some difficulty for his target audience," Payack said. [...]

Obama's nearly 10th-grade-level rating was the highest of any of his major speeches and well above the Grade 7.4 of his 2008 "Yes, we can" victory speech, which many consider his best effort, Payack said.

"The scores indicate that this was not Obama at his best, especially when attempting to make an emotional connection to the American people," he added.