A new study has claimed that the U.S President Barack Obama's speechmaking is on the same level as the former President George W. Bush.
According to the analysis by Vocativ, a media company headquartered in New York City, Obama's State of the Union speeches as more dumbed-down than Bush's, showing that Obama's speeches averaged 9.5 to Bush's 9.4, the Washington Times reported.
The firm, which used the Flesch-Kincaid readability test to grade speeches by presidents all the way back to George Washington, said that Bush's (State of the Union) speeches were a grade level higher than are Obama's.
The firm added that despite Bush's reputation as a poor speaker, Obama's (overall) speeches are only slightly more sophisticated.
Jeff Shesol, a historian who worked as a speechwriter for President Clinton, said that she thinks President Obama, no more or less than President Bush, tries to pack a lot of nuance and subtext into language that is as plain and straightforward as possible.
Shesol added that while President Bush was often inarticulate off the cuff, Bush's speeches were underestimated and there was a crisp formality to a lot of his best speeches, particularly the ones he delivered shortly after Sept. 11.
The analysis found that, over the centuries, presidential speeches have grown longer and less sophisticated and Vocativ said that the level of sophistication has fallen as presidents try to reach broader audiences.