Will the tallest presidential candidate win? (May the Tallest Man Win)

[Leo 9]

May the Tallest Man Win
In elections, birth order and height may matter as much as policies and people skills.

By: Kathleen McGowan

Looking to predict election returns? Let the pundits puzzle over voters' whims—and open the annals of psychology instead.

First principle: Big brother is always right.

Being the firstborn child doesn't just mean you get to stay up later; it also may win you the country. Firstborn and only children are overrepresented everywhere in politics, from congressmen to Australian prime ministers. U.S. presidential contests are no different: Big brother George W. beat out little brother Al Gore; older brother Bill Clinton trumped Bob Dole, the second of four children.

Several hypotheses attempt to explain the successes of the firstborns and of only children. One theory holds that the boost comes from the initially undiluted resources firstborns receive from their parents. A rival interpretation posits that the dominance of firstborns in leadership roles is due to their early training as tutors, mentors (and rulers) of their younger brothers and sisters.

Stats:

George W. Bush: older brother to Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Dorothy and Robin (now deceased).

John Kerry: Second of four: John is an older brother to Diana and Cameron, but younger than Peggy.

Edge: Bush


Second principle: Height makes might.

Apparently, we really do look up to our leaders. The taller candidate has won every presidential contest in the past quarter-century. Recent presidents all tower above the average five-foot-nine American man: George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton see eye-to-eye at six foot two, and Ronald Reagan was a lanky six foot one. Runners-up tend to be shorter—think Michael Dukakis. In a case of the exception proving the rule, Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, is two inches taller than W.

snip

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20040629-000001.html


Heights of United States Presidents and presidential candidates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of heights of United States presidential candidates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heights_of_United_States_presidential_candidates


Head and Shoulders Above the Rest

snip

A candidate's physical presence can be an important advantage in modern American politics. Rightly or wrongly, height lends stature to a candidate's image. A taller candidate may be seen subconsciously as more presidential. Campaigns often go to great lengths to shroud a shorter candidate's height and avoid side-by-side comparisons with larger rivals, just as Hollywood moviemakers use visual tricks to disguise the real size of some of their biggest -- or, that is, smallest -- stars. America, it seems, likes its leading men tall.

In fact, history seems to bear out the height advantage. Since television started bringing candidates into voters' homes for the first time roughly six decades ago, the taller candidate has won more popular votes in 12 of the last 15 presidential general elections. (The exceptions were Richard M. Nixon in 1972, Jimmy Carter in 1976 and George W. Bush in 2004; wikipedia's entry on this misstates Bill Clinton's height, which was measured during official medical exams at 6-foot-2-1/2, making him just a tad taller than George H.W. Bush.) Some have studied senatorial races and found similar trends. My Washington Post colleague, Jay Mathews, has long argued that size matters. "We are a species that equates larger size with maturity, leadership and sex appeal," he once wrote.

But obviously that is not always the determining factor. After all, at 6-foot 4, Sen. John F. Kerry loomed over the 5-foot-11 Bush in 2004 and despite some predictions that he would win because of the differential, the Massachusetts Democrat ended up conceding to the shorter man. (Vice President Al Gore also had 1-1/2 inches on Bush but he actually did win the popular vote in 2000, even if not the electoral vote.) And having a woman on the other side of the debate stage could scramble the equation. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign puts her at 5-foot-5, although many public reports have her at 5-foot-6, and she doesn't seem to be having much trouble in the Democratic primary contest at the moment with 6-foot-1 Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, let alone 5-foot-7 Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

snip

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/11/head_and_shoulders_above.html

[Hippo_Tron]

1. Kerry was quite a few inches taller than Bush (n/t)

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Kerry's concession should not be construed as prez shit-for-brains actually winning.

After all, at 6-foot 4, Sen. John F. Kerry loomed over the 5-foot-11 Bush in 2004 and despite some predictions that he would win because of the differential, the Massachusetts Democrat ended up conceding to the shorter man.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Why do they perpetuate this height myth?

First of all, although a quarter century sounds like a lot, if you count back 25 15 years from today, there have been only three presidential elections. That's hardly a statistically valid sample size. If you want to include the 1992 election (that's about 25 15 years plus 10 weeks), that makes four elections. In these four elections, there have only been six candidates. In three of those four elections, the "losing" candidate has been taller.

Lame, lame, lame.

On edit: I need to learn how to add.
That's six elections with nine candidates. Three of the six losers (Kerry, Gore, Bush Sr.) were taller than the winner.

If the article is being used to point out the fact that the last two elections were stolen, I'm all for it. Otherwise, it's frivolous B.S.

[Leo 9]

5. Yes, the last two elections were stolen.

Also if you look at the wikipedia link you'll see that overall the tallest presidential candidate has most often won.

[MethuenProgressive]

4. OP predicts a Bill Richardson victory!!

"We are a species that equates larger size with maturity, leadership and sex appeal,"
:party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: