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Presidential Inauguration: How many words long will President Obama's address be?

Settled as 2250 or more words

2366 by my count

Background:

Background: Newly sworn-in presidents give a speech referred to as an inaugural address. Five presidents gave no address: Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, and Ford. In each of these cases, the incoming President was succeeding a President who had either resigned or died in office. Fifty-five addresses have been given by 37 presidents. George Washington's second address was the shortest (135 words) and William Henry Harrison delivered the longest (8,495 words). In recent years Inauguration addresses have been varying between the low of 1300 words for JFK to 2500 words for Ronald Reagan. President Barack Obama is known as a skilled orator, so how long will his speech be.
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Settlement details:As reported by a major mainstream news source. A transcript of the speech will be used to determine correct amount of words.

 
Forecast history %
Less than 1250 words
0%
1250 to less than 1500 words
1%
1500 to less than 1600 words
3%
1600 to less than 1700 words
2%
1700 to less than 1800 words
2%
1800 to less than 1900 words
2%
1900 to less than 2000 words
3%
2000 to less than 2100 words
1%
2100 to less than 2250 words
6%
2250 or more words
80%
Settled as 2250 or more words on Tue 20th Jan 11:51am PST

Suspend date: Tue 20th Jan 6am PST
Settlement date: Tue 20th Jan 11:51am PST
Prediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Tue 20th Jan 6am PST have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled

Initial likelihoods: Less than 1250 words: 5%, 1250 to less than 1500 words: 10%, 1500 to less than 1600 words: 10%, 1600 to less than 1700 words: 10%, 1700 to less than 1800 words: 10%, 1800 to less than 1900 words: 10%, 1900 to less than 2000 words: 15%, 2000 to less than 2100 words: 10%, 2100 to less than 2250 words: 10%, 2250 or more words: 10%

Action history:

Created Sat 8th Nov 2008 4:56pm PST by destry[Admin]
Suspended Tue 20th Jan 6am PST : Suspend date reached
Settlement requested Tue 20th Jan 10:44am PST by chuck: I counted 2401.

Link to PDF:
http://www.c-span.org/pdf/obama_inaguralAddress.pdf
Settled as '2250 or more words' Tue 20th Jan 11:51am PST by jenniandboys[Admin]: 2366 by my count

Suspend date: Tue 20th Jan 6am PST
Settlement date: Tue 20th Jan 11:51am PST
Prediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Tue 20th Jan 6am PST have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled details

 

Predictions (143)

43 weeks ago
jhouseholder predicted 2250 or more words (H$20 at 80%)
43 weeks ago
chatterbox670 predicted 2250 or more words (H$50 at 80%)
43 weeks ago
rockerjjt predicted 2100 to less than 2250 words (H$20 at 4%)
43 weeks ago
donnamil predicted 2250 or more words (H$50 at 82%)
43 weeks ago
chuck predicted 2250 or more words (H$1,000 at 80%)

Comments (8)

Does the phrase; Yes We can count as three words everytime he uses it? or just 3 words (joking)
posted 1 year ago
Here is a link listing the length of some previous addresses:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0878085.html
posted 1 year ago
  3 clarky
I love him but he does go on a bit so I'm going long.....
posted 44 weeks ago
I originally read this market as "How many long words will Obama use?". As the former editor of Harvard Law Review he does like long words.
posted 44 weeks ago
  5 lcsnor
I guess we all have to hope he doesn't use exactly, say 2000 words or this question will have 2 correct answers.
posted 43 weeks ago
  6 destry[Admin]
The options read in a way to where there is no overlap. In the above comment it suggests there would be 2 correct answers for a situation where his speech is 2000 words long exactly, that is NOT true. By reading the option text you will see that the only option that is correct is 2000 to less than 2100. The option that reads 1900 to less than 2000 would not be correct because 2000 is NOT less than 2000.
In the future if you feel there is a potential settlement problem with a market, please click flag for review and list your concern, that way an email is automatically generated to category editor.
posted 43 weeks ago
the dude is loquacious but his message is poetry. he's gonna give the people their money's worth.
posted 43 weeks ago
WOOHOO!!! Hits it out of the park!
posted 43 weeks ago

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