Reporter's notebook: Words matter in SOTU

Terror. Alliance. Deficits.

Those three words feature prominently in an art exhibit by R. Luke DuBois currently on display in Santa Fe. The exhibit highlights the words used most frequently by presidents during their State of the Union addresses.

The display titled “Hindsight is Always 20/20” resembles an eye chart with the most commonly used words on top in large font and lesser used words appearing smaller and smaller as you go down, and shows how political discourse has changed over time.

While France and sea vessels featured prominently during the late 1700s when John Adams was president, during the George W. Bush years the focus was on Iraq and terrorism.

When Donald Trump gives his first State of the Union address tonight some of his favorite words like bigly, tremendous and winning may find themselves next to the likes of Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Democratic.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Jamie Cushman