Word count for the president's speech

George W Bush has an infamous way with words.

Presented here is a tally of words and the frequency with which the president used them in his address to the nation on September 13, 2007.

Bush's 2,525-word monologue ran 17 minutes. While reading a prepared speech is different that just talking, ordinary conversation usually takes place between 130 and 180 words per minute. His average rate during the speech was about 150 words per minute, which researchers calculate as being fairly normal. The same speech in front of a live audience would typically take longer to deliver, as speakers space their words to allow for acoustic resonance and interactions such as applause.

Our list combines roots and forms. For example, "Iraq" and "Iraqi" are counted together, as are "free" and "freedom." If President Bush said a word during the speech, the chance that the word was "Iraq" was about 1 in 38. That is, 2.6% of all the words he used were "Iraq" and it was the most common word that wasn't an article (such as "the").

Here is a selective list of some of his favorite words from the speech, along with the number of times each was used:

Iraq: 65
We: 45
You: 21
Troops: 20
America: 15
I: 15
Security: 14
Forces: 13
Success: 13
Al Qaeda: 12
Free: 12
Nation: 12
People: 12
Anbar: 11
Terrorists: 11
Extremists: 10
Government: 10
Home: 10
Petraeus: 8
Military: 8
Work: 7
Baghdad: 6
Fight: 6
Join: 6
Life: 6
Strategy: 6
Believe: 5
Iran: 5
Strength: 5
Sunni: 5
Surge: 5
Army: 4
Congress: 4
Kill: 4
Sectarian: 4
Democracy: 4
Reconciliation: 4
Resources: 4
Sacrifice: 3
Abandon: 2
Capture: 2
Cooperation: 2
Death Squad: 2
War: 2
Christmas: 1
God: 1
September 11th: 1
Shia: 1
Taliban: 1

Click to read or hear the speech from the White House website.