With John McCain trailing Barack Obama in double-digits nationwide (53-39, according to the lates Times/CBS News poll) and many of the former solid red states turning blue, the stakes in this final presidential debate could not have been higher for the Republican ticket.

With emotions running equally high, especially after McCain's promises over the weekend (e.g. that he will "whip" Obama's "you-know-what"), many observers wondered if the Republican nominee would go after Barack Obama and his connections to Jeremia Wright and Bill Ayers.

Similarly, people were eager to see how CBS moderator Bob Schieffer was to coordinate the final face-off between the two candidates and touch upon topics as diverse as their newly unveiled economic plans, the role of negative campaigning and other foreign and domestic issues.

The following is an analysis of the words John McCain and Barack Obama used to present their political agenda to the American public.


1. The Debate's Keywords

2. Emotionality

The final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama was certainly the most direct engagement of and sparring between the candidates. McCain and Obama exchanged arguments from negative campaigning to ACORN, Ayers and Joe the Plumber, and frequently interrupted each other. In addition to the words, their gestures and mimic also left little doubt about their fundamental disagreements and mutual views of one another.

In the purely rhetorical staging of emotionality in last night's debate (based on a combined analysis intensifier [link: glossary] and the emphatic use of emphatic particles), McCain was also more emotional in his rhetoric than Obama, as the thermometer below indicates (with 0 being the average emotionality of both candidates throughout the campaign).

When compared to the previous debates, however, it becomes clear that the rhetorical emotionality displayed by McCain and Obama has actually decreased over time and remained almost constant in the last two encounters.

In terms of responding to John McCain's attacks and drawing a sharp comparison between them, it is also interesting to note that Obama very often used phrases stressing the subjectivity of his utterance (I think, I mean) far more often than McCain.

3. Significant Phrases

The undisputed hero of the final presidential debate was certainly Joe Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the plumber, with McCain referring to him 7 times (Obama: 2).

Further indication of the fact that McCain was on the rhetorical offensive is the fact that he referred to Obama far more often than Obama to him, namely 54 times (8.29 times/1000 words) in contrast to Obama's 44 reference to Senator McCain (John: 10; McCain 34, 5.97 times/1000 words).

Whereas McCain sought to attack Obama's policies for their excessive spending and a (Marxist) redistribution of wealth (the wealth around, to spread the wealth, you wanted to spread), as well as big government (the size of government), Obama corrected these allegations by stressing his political vision (I think that we, And I think that, I think important to, I just described, I think [...] I think, fine because I said) and strategy for the future (going to be/have to, to make sure that, think going to be, we are going to do is, important for us to, want to make sure that).

4. Nouns, Adjectives, Personal Pronouns

The following is a breakdown of the nouns, adjective and pronouns John McCain and Barack Obama used with a significantly higher frequency than the other candidate during the debate:

a. Nouns

Typical nouns used by McCain:

Nouns	Significance Level	Relative Frequency Factor
wealth	0,00158	12,37
government	0,00323	6,75
tax	0,00474	4,22
party	0,02138	7,87
spending	0,03201	2,92

The nouns that John McCain used significantly more frequent than Barack Obama during the debate only serve to underline a portrayal of his opponent as someone who favors spending, redistribution of wealth, big government, raising taxes, and has no record of having taken on his own party.

Typical nouns used by Obama:

Nouns	Significance Level	Relative Frequency Factor
policy	< 0.0001	7,99
cut	0,00702	not used by McCain
crisis	0,01098	8,88
insurance	0,03449	3,11
president	0,03552	3,55

Obama, on the other hand, while also focusing on his policy differences with John McCain, emphasizes the crisis the country is facing, the need for tax cuts and a sound system of health insurance.

b. Personal Pronouns

Typical Personal Pronouns used by McCain:

Personal Pronouns	Significance Level	Relative Frequency Factor
she	0,00550	4,87
you	0,00681	1,53
him	0,03057	3,75
he	0,03794	1,76

Contrary to previous debates, John McCain engaged the audience far more directly with his higher usage of you than Barack Obama. At the same time, he also referred to his running mate (she) and to Barack Obama (him, he) far more than his opponent.

Typical Personal Pronouns used by Obama:

Personal Pronouns	Significance Level	Relative Frequency Factor
us	0,04373	2,51

Obama's only statistically more frequent use of a particular pronoun, by contrast, is us, indicating an attempt to appeal to collectivity and a broader community of interests.


5. Collocations

The clusters below illustrates the collocations for particular keywords or topics employed John McCain and Barack Obama:

a. Abortion (shared collocations: white)



When looking at both candidates collocations of the word abortion, the differences become obvious: Although both candidates basically agree on a ban of partial-birth and late-term abortions, McCain in very plain terms stresses the negative aspects of abortion and condems what he calls the "pro-abortion" movement by calling their positions extreme.

Obama approaches the topic more cautiously and seeks common ground by pointing to the difficulty of the issue and the need for respect of each other's opinion in order to work together toward a solution. It is also striking that for him, the dimension of support (supportive) plays a much higher role rhetorically as for John McCain.

b. How McCain talks about Obama

As the cluster below illustrates, McCain characterizes Obama as an opponent of free trade, a big spender (spend more), and a candidate with an unknown and potentially dubious record (relationship, vote present). Furthermore, he takes on his opponents health care and economic plans, thus providing a comprehensive attack on his Democratic opponent on the most pressing issues facing the country.

c. How Obama talks about McCain

Obama, when referencing John McCain, responds to these attacks by formally expressing his disagreement (I disagree with) and connecting his overall policy goals to the specifics of his tax policy, health care, energy and the economy.

6. Vocabulary

The following shows McCain and Obama's variety of words and the distribution between linguistic categories:

Linguistic Feature	Obama	McCain
Nouns	521	517
Adjectives	208	173
Pronouns	21	21
Adverbs	109	88
Verbs	255	213
Total	1114	1012
Average Length of Sentences	19,8	15,7

It is interesting to see that Obama uses more adjectives, adverbs and verbs in his rhetoric, suggesting a more complex grammatical structure.

Equally striking is the fact that not only in this debate but ever since their first encounter Barack Obama has also constantly used longer sentences than John McCain, as the chart below illustrates:

Moreover, Obama has said far more words than McCain in each debate:

7. Conclusion

The highly anticipated last face-off between the two candidates delivered no knock-out punch for either John McCain or Barack Obama.

McCain's rhetoric tried to paint Obama as a big spender by introducing the word 14 times into the debate, whereas Obama held his ground by insisting that his economic plan would actually cut taxes (using a combination of the word tax cut(s) and cut(s) 21 times).

Whether these characterizations, the rhetorical attacks McCain launched against Obama, and McCain's higher rhetorical emotionality will resonate with voters remains to be seen in the last three weeks before the election.