Veni, vidi, vici: Obama's State of the Union address is written at an 8th grade level.

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics blog analyzes everything politics--not the least of which includes the style and grade level of each State of the Union speech given by a president since Franklin Roosevelt. By their measurements (using the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale), President Obama's State of the Union speech the other night was aiming for the pubescent crowd. In fact, all of Obama's SOTU speeches average an 8th grade reading level. Specifically, 8.4. By this standard, it's the worst of any modern president.

How do presidents from the past eighty years rank in grade-level speeches?

Rank          Name                    Grade Level
1.            John F. Kennedy             12.0
2.            Dwight Eisenhower          11.9
3.            Richard Nixon                  11.5
4.            Franklin Roosevelt          11.4
5.            Gerald Ford                    11.2
6.            Jimmy Carter                   10.8
7.            Harry Truman                  10.5
8.            Lyndon Johnson              10.4
8.           George W. Bush              10.4
10.          Ronald Regan                10.3
11.          Bill Clinton                       9.5
12.         George H.W. Bush           8.6
13.          Barack Obama                8.4

Some reasons for the lower grade levels? The five most recent presidents also have the five lowest scores. Researchers say it could be a matter of the way human beings talk--that, in essence, there's a universal dumbing down of America, and the easiest way for a politician to connect with voters is to talk to them in styles they understand. Put simply (pun intended): we're all dumb, and politicians know this.

On the other hand, researchers say it might just be a matter of the style of speech--that humans (and, by association, sadly, politicians) use shorter, compact sentences for emphasis, whereas 50+ years ago it was uncommon practice to use such speaking style. These sentences are the Danny DeVito of sentences--a lot of action in a little package. (Compact sentence example? Think Caesar: I came, I saw, I conquered. Whatta modern guy that Caesar!)

The real shocking news from this study? That Jimmy Carter talks in the sixth-most educated manner. Don't me wrong--I love me some Jimmy. I just can't listen to him talk and not envision him drawling about peanut farming.