Hall: Tall Trumps Small In Politics

The victory last fall of a tall, skinny candidate for president who defeated a short candidate has revived the myth that the tallest candidate always wins. Actually, there’s some truth to the myth. Historically, the tallest candidate for president doesn’t always win, but he wins far more often than not. People are probably talking about that pattern again now because the 2008 winner, Barack Obama (6 foot 11/2 inch) is 71/2 inches taller than his opponent, John McCain (5 foot 6-inch). Obama seems even taller than he is because he’s only about 4 inches wide. However, eight presidents have been taller, including the tallest of all, that other Illinois bean pole, Abraham Lincoln, at 6 foot 4 inches/ Bill Hall , Lewiston Tribune. Full column below .

Question: What role do you think such physical attributes as height play in the success of political candidates?

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The victory last fall of a tall, skinny candidate for president who defeated a short candidate has revived the myth that the tallest candidate always wins.

Actually, there’s some truth to the myth. Historically, the tallest candidate for president doesn’t always win, but he wins far more often than not. People are probably talking about that pattern again now because the 2008 winner, Barack Obama (6 foot 11/2 inch) is 71/2 inches taller than his opponent, John McCain (5 foot 6-inch).

Obama seems even taller than he is because he’s only about 4 inches wide. However, eight presidents have been taller, including the tallest of all, that other Illinois bean pole, Abraham Lincoln, at 6 foot 4 inches.

It is Lincoln who best illustrates why there may be some truth to the folk theory that the tallest candidate has an advantage in an election. Lincoln lived in a time before modern nutrition dramatically increased the height of people in this country. Lincoln would still be well above average in today’s population. But in his era, he lived in the land of runts. He towered over most of the people of his time.

He also ran for office in a time before every candidate was a talking head on television with no visible body. Candidates on television appear almost entirely in head shots. Thus all seem to be the same height.

Candidates in the middle of the 1800s made themselves known to the voters through public appearances, live and in person, tall or short.

Lincoln was typical. He took trains all over the populated parts of the country. He stood on train platforms and in bandstands in city parks with thousands watching. People had no television or movies or huge sporting events for entertainment. So a major politician could draw huge crowds. Whole towns would turn out even though Lincoln could neither sing nor play a guitar.

But he was a rock star in those years, literally standing tall above almost all around him. Compare him with his 1864 opponent, George McClellan, who was 10 inches shorter at 5 foot 6 inches. McClellan got lost in his own crowd.

It didn’t help that McClellan had a reputation as a Civil War general who wouldn’t attack. John McCain, Obama’s opponent, was a war hero. McClellan was a war zero.

The odd thing is that being tall doesn’t make you any wiser or dumber than anybody else. People are built in large and small packages. How much wisdom the package contains is up to each individual and his genetic inheritance.

But image matters in politics and rock music. Tall skinny guys who act cool often come out on top in personality contests like elections. Shorter guys who have to jump up and down, yelling, “Somebody look at me!” just don’t stand out in a crowd in a flattering way.

But smaller candidates sometime do win. In fact, I once witnessed something amazing while covering the Idaho Legislature. It was lunch time and the 105 lawmakers were walking out of the Statehouse going to eat.

I was walking among them so their respective heights were apparent to me. I was in a natural position to observe what I saw that day because I was, at 5 foot 9 inches, exactly the average American male height at that time. The astonishing thing was that nearly all of the legislators were quite a bit taller than I was or quite a bit shorter. Few were my average height. They were all chosen by the people and it appeared that the very tall and the very small had some advantage over people of average height. What could that be?

As we have already discussed, tall lets you literally stand out in a crowd. And it probably gives you some confidence as well.

As for short politicians, my guess is that diminutive people in politics tend to compensate for their shortcomings with Napoleonic cockiness and aggression. It makes them scrappy. Scrappy can win an election.

John McCain was like that last year. At a time of life when most men of his age and mine are sitting around drinking coffee, he was skittering all over America running an exhausting campaign.

McCain might have won if he hadn’t been up against a guy who was both tall and part black. Being part black in a nation where that has long been a handicap can also make a candidate scrappy.

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Hall is editor emeritus of the Tribune’s editorial page. His e-mail
address is wilberth@cableone.net .