How to Shrink the Deficit

Check out the U.S. Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud. It takes a moment to figure out how to use the slider (numbers on the timeline would have been helpful), but -- once you do -- you can see which topics are important to which presidents, based on the frequency of a given word in their speeches. Clearly, "Constitution" was a big one for for Lincoln, "unemployment," "dictator," and "democratic" loomed large for F.D.R., and for the early presidents "treaty" was a major buzzword of choice.

Notice how the word "deficit," so large in the speeches of Reagan and Clinton, shrinks and disappears in the speeches of George W. Bush, as we approach the present day. From the image above, you can see the word that dominates his rhetoric.