[WS:] He wrote clearly, but I wound not say that he used plain language. Not an easy read for an average US 10th grader.
I find it funny though because back in the old country the trend was in the opposite direction. Everyone try to look smarter, not dumber. Sometimes it had comic effect as people would use "smart" words they did not understand. Here the opposite is true - smart people try to look dumber to enhance their popular appeal. Bush jr. was a prime example - he did not act as dumb when he was TX governor. It is that notorious American anti-intellectualism.
BTW, Obama is one of few prominent politicians who do not follow this trend. He is trying to elevate public discourse to a higher level instead of dumbing it down. From my pov, this alone is enough to vote for him - I simply cannot stand the idiocy of ordinary political discourse in America.
Speaking of reading - I just saw the publisher of a Cliff note type of a publication that summarized a 270 page page book making a claim on Amazon that reading the Cliff note saves reader time. He quoted two figures - the reading time of the original book - 4 hours, the reading time of Cliff notes 20 minutes. I am a slow reader, but it sounds utterly preposterous to me to claim that reading a 270 page book takes only 4 hours. Unless of course we are talking about "speed reading" which is to reading as jacking off in a public bathroom is to love making. I can understand a business executive or a shyster "speed reading" a document to get a gist of what it is about and then asking his underlings to actually read it and tell him what it says. But I do not think it is possible to "read" such a non-fiction book (i.e. one with a considerable number of more than two syllable words) in 4 hours and actually understand what it says. Any comments?
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."