A better metric for text difficulty might be mean tf-idf. Essentially the average "rareness" of each word used. This topic is fun to analyze, but it's not real

A better metric for text difficulty might be mean tf-idf. Essentially the average "rareness" of each word used. This topic is fun to analyze, but it's not really aligned with the objective of a political debate. Simple words can broadcast competence, and big words can be taken as pretentious.