Longest and strongest or C

The old advice for taking multiple guess tests, like SAT.  The answer with the most qualifications (longest and strongest) is more likely to be right.  "C" comes from the observation that the test makers don't like to place the right answer first (A) or last (D). 
   Heard a piece on NPR this morning.  Someone digitized the last twenty years of the Congressional Record.  They didn't say just how this super tedious chore was accomplished.  Text scanning I hope.  Keyboarding that much pure political drivel  rates as cruel and unusual  punishment in my book. 
  Anyhow, the researcher ran all the congresscritter's speeches thru a school grading program that rated the maturity of the writing on a grade scale (12th grade, 11th grade, and so on).   Back in the good old days, the average speech used vocabulary and sentence structure on the 11th grade level.  In the decadent present day, the average has sunk to the 10th grade level.  Woe to the Republic.
   It was revealed that the grading program looked at sentence length and use of fancy vocabulary, with longer and stronger rating higher.  Funny, they taught me that good writing uses short declarative active voice sentences, and short strong Anglo Saxon root words, rather than the longer and weaker Latin root words.
   Perhaps the Congresscritters are actually getting better at speechmaking?
   Woe to the students whose teachers use that grading program.