Comparing DNC Speeches: Michelle Obama's Written 7 Grade Levels Above Ann Romney's

There have been a lot of comparisons made between Michelle Obama's and Ann Romney's convention speeches, but this is a new one to me (via the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs' Smart Politics blog):

Although her husband has delivered some of the simplest State of the Union speeches over the last 75+ years -- with all three written at an eighth grade level -- Michelle Obama did not follow rhetorical suit on Tuesday evening.

One week after Ann Romney set a record for delivering a speech written at the lowest grade level in convention history by the wives of presidential nominees, Michelle Obama delivers a speech written at the highest ever grade level.

Using the Flesch-Kincaid test, researchers found that Obama's speech was  written at a twelfth-grade level, "more than 3.5 grade levels above the next highest speech of the 10 previous prepared remarks delivered by wives of presidential nominees since the first such address in 1992 by Barbara Bush" and, as noted above, the highest level ever for a presidential nominee's wife.

From: http://www.alternet.org