Also, Sarah Palin, Also Says "Also" Too Much.

So Sarah Palin didn’t do so very badly in the debate last night. Oh sure, she didn’t answer a lot of questions and clearly wasn’t conversant in a number of topics as Joe Biden, but she didn’t come off as that laughingstock that she did in the Couric interviews.

The polls seem to suggest pretty clearly that Biden won the night. Part of the reason is that people can tell from little clues that Palin isn’t really comfortable talking about these topics. They can tell she’s BSing some and trying to remember what she was told to say. There are verbal ticks she has that reveal her. I’m a little bored at work today so I analyzed some word usage in the debate text.

One of the ways that viewers could tell Palin was rambling is that she used the word “and” with far more frequency than Biden. You know how people who are trying to convince you of something but they aren’t really clear in the topic themselves so they keep piling on more and more so they end up using the word “and” over and over, often beginning sentences with the word? Well, I counted the number of times Palin and Biden said “and” (I told you I was bored) and the figures were:

Palin: 324

Biden: 185

That’s a significant difference.

But my favorite word that she overuses is one that I noticed back in the Couric interviews: "also." She tosses it in at odd points that don’t make any sense or are just unnecessary. The count for “also”?

Palin: 48

Biden: 3

That’s 16 times more than Biden. I considered the possibility that Biden just used the word “too” instead and found something that I hadn’t noticed before, another word Palin tosses in at odd points. For “too” the count was:

Palin: 14

Biden: 0

Like I said, I first noticed the “also” tick in her Couric interviews and spotted it again in the debate. About half way into the debate, I said to my husband, “Watch. When she starts to get flustered, she says ‘also’ over and over.” And sure enough, the more difficult the topic was for her, the more likely she was to say “also.” It looks like the YouTuber, Adam Anger, spotted the tick too.

Below are some of my favorites “also” lines from Palin in the debate. Frequently, the sentences (such as they are) would do better without the word and sometimes using “also” makes no sense.

And I've joined this team that is a team of mavericks with John McCain, also, with his track record of reform, where we're known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done.

One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again.

That one I find particularly odd. She starts saying “one thing” but then says “also.” If you say “also,” doesn’t that require that there be more than one thing?

That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also.

There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.

The pointless and kooky double-also!

And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.

That's not what we're doing there. We're fighting terrorists, and we're securing democracy, and we're building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also. There will be a big difference there, and we will win in -- in Afghanistan, also.

But as for as Darfur, we can agree on that also, the supported of the no-fly zone, making sure that all options are on the table there also.

Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also.

We have to fight for our freedoms, also, economic and our national security freedoms.

“Freedoms” is already plural and would presumably include economic and national security freedoms (whatever those are???), so what she says here is kind of like saying, “Sarah Palin shoots animals, also deer and moose.” It’s weirdly redundant and gives listeners a clue that the person speaking isn't really comfortable with the topic and is floundering in the discussion.

Anyway, I was wasting some time counting words in the debates, and if you’re read this, I’ve wasted some time of yours ... also.