Rhetorical Visualization of Palin's Supreme Court Non-Answer

Get the latest Flash player

kentbye
October 02, 2008

Audio waveform overlaid with animated motion graphics of Palin's Supreme Court non-answer. COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with? PALIN: Mmmmm -- [lip smack] -- Well -- ...

Audio waveform overlaid with animated motion graphics of Palin's Supreme Court non-answer.

COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?

PALIN: Mmmmm -- [lip smack] -- Well -- Let's see. There's -- [deep breath] [sigh] -- Of course, in -- in the great history of America, there have been rulings, that um -- There's never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and -- Um -- There are those issues -- again, like Roe v. Wade where I believe are best [pause] held on a state level and addressed there. So -- Um, you know, going through the history of -- America, there -- there would be others. But, um --

COURIC: Can you think of any?

PALIN: Well, I -- I would think of -- of any again, that could best be dealt with on a more local level -- maybe I would take issue with. But -- um -- You know, as, uh -- as a mayor, and then as a governor, and -- even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things, but in supporting the law of the land as it -- as it reads today.

* * * * *

I was interested in analyzing Palin's strategies and patterns for avoiding answering a question for which she knows nothing about.

Palin appears to not be able to think of any other Supreme Court Cases off the top of her head, but instead of explicitly saying so provides an answer by streaming together a number of talking point generalities.

When listening to the clip, it's fairly evident to me that this is what is happening from a qualitative perspective. But I'm politically biased against her, and it could be just my interpretation. And so I wanted to see if there were any more conclusive quantitative patterns that would emerge from the process of visualizing her speech patterns by overlaying the audio waveform with a typographic animation of the transcript.

There was a fair amount of subjectivity in how to annotate and punctuate the transcript. And by being as literal as possible in the transcription, I observed a fair amount of false starts, stumbling around words, and jumping from various threads of thought in a non-linear pattern.

This behavior actually happens with a lot of people, and isn't necessarily conclusive of anything. And so then the question becomes what are the quantitative indicators of a political "non-answer" or talking point line of BS?

To me the most predictive factor was the number of abnormally "awkward" spaces that she had between her words. It's like she's you can tell that she's not struggling to not think of a specific word, but it's more of a prolonged pattern that she'll use for buying extra time for creating her long-range strategy of how she's going to fill up time with an acceptable non-answer.

That's still pretty quantitative, and so I'm curious to hear any thoughts on this and whether there any other ways of detecting and quantifying BS.

Category: News & Politics

Tags:

More From: kentbye

Play All Stop Autoplaying | Play Next

QuickList(0)

Clear | Save

5 ratings

1,269 views

Favorite

Playlists

Flag

Want to add to Favorites? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to add to Playlists? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to flag a video? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (0)

This video has no Responses. Be the first to Post a Video Response.

Text Comments (6) Options

LAWAGO (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

HUH, I think she can be certified mentally ill.

She is a Case Example of Dissociative Schizophrenia.

ahioud (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

if W Bush can get elected twice, then anything is possible. knowing how americans are today, republicans have more chances of winning. Forget about the economy or the war. It's all about, the one who is most stupid will win.

weaseldragon (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

and....

wreckandsalvage (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Um, and can you even say that if I were, so priviledged, that umm, and I daresay, with regards to any potential, umm, on the day that happens, if it ever does, that we'll all be, at least here in America, that much better off because every single person I speak to, all across America, and the media has failed to report this, my time in the spotlight has proven this, that even if.

dltq (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

i cannot praise this video enough. i would feel SO embarassed as an American if she got elected to be VP. As a non-american, even, I would feel ashamed on behalf of mankind.

RyanIsHungry (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

oh, um, ah the consti-what?

Showing 6 of 6 comments

Show More Comments

View All 6 comments

Would you like to comment?

Join YouTube for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.

YouTube	Programs	Help	Policy	Discover
Contact Us	Advertising	Get Help	Privacy Policy	YouTube on Your Phone
YouTube Store	Developers	YouTube Handbook	Terms of Service	YouTube on Your Site
Press Room	Partnerships	Community Help Forums	Copyright Notices	YouTube on Your TV
Business Blog	Content Management	Safety Center	Community Guidelines	YouTube RSS Feeds
YouTube Blog		Creator's Corner		TestTube

Add YouTube to your Google homepage

Current Location: Germany Show locations

Rhetorical Visualization of Palin's Supreme Court Non-Answer

More From: kentbye

QuickList(0)

Related Videos

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (0)

Text Comments (6) Options

Would you like to comment?