Prepared by Upstream Analysis April 10, 2008 Democratic Presidential Debates Shift in Focus

Methodology  The tag clouds on the following pages represent the 50 words most frequently used by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential debates held on April 26, 2007, and February 26, The larger the font size, the more frequently the term was used by the candidate.  A “stop list” of the most commonly used words in the English language was used to filter out terms such as “and,” “of,” “the,” etc.  Tag clouds of debate text were based on transcripts provided by the Federal News Service and CQ Transcriptions via The Associated Press.  Visualizations were generated using TagCrowd.com.  Elements of debate format (e.g., number of candidates involved, differences in questions posed to each candidate, length of response) may influence results.

Sen. Hillary Clinton April 26, 2007 February 26, 2008 A very focused debate performance with the key message, “I’m ready to be president” War terms include attacked, Iraq, security, war Domestic policy terms include health care, immigrants Less focused debate performance with the emphasis on issues rather than message “Iraq” and “war” almost nonexistent Emphasis on affordable health care, insurance, issues, jobs, NAFTA, tax(es)

Sen. Barack Obama Less focused debate performance; message unclear (“making decisions,” perhaps?) War terms dominate: intelligence, Iraq/Iraqi, military, nuclear, security, terrorism, terrorists, threat, war Domestic policy terms include health care, insurance, families More focused debate performance with the emphasis on health care and drawing a distinction with Sen. Clinton Iraq mentioned, but Pakistan more prominent Emphasis on affordable health care, community, issues, jobs April 26, 2007 February 26, 2008