Slow Day in the Situation Room

Only a lean, mean, twelve-thousand hours stand between us and election day. In the meanwhile, your cable news professionals will help pass the time by reporting on all sorts of nonsense.

Take Wolf Blitzer, who staged something of a symposium on the heights of the various presidential contenders. Very strange, when you consider that earlier this month, Wolf Blitzer and CNN went to great lengths to conceal this information from the American public!

Is there something to the matter of Presidential height? Well, believers in the Presidential Height Index say that it's an important indicator, and that since the advent of television, the taller candidate for President has always won the election.

Except for the last election, when 6'0" George W. Bush beat the 6'4" John Kerry, of course.

And the 1976 election, where 5'9" Jimmy Carter prevailed over the 6'0" Gerald Ford.

Uhm...and the 1972 election, when 5'11" Richard Nixon beat the 6'1" George McGovern.

Oh! And, by the way..apparently it only works as far as the popular vote is concerned (Gore: 6'1").

(Plus, it doesn't work in Presidential primaries, because otherwise, we'd be referring to Bill Bradley as "former President" Bill Bradley.)

So...okay. It's hard to see where the news value is in this Stiuation Room story. TV Newser says the "news hook" is the fact that Michael Bloomberg, who maybe sorta kinda might be not not running for President, is 5'7", which would easily make him the shortest of all the major contenders.

Except for Hillary, who's 5'6". And, she's considered to be a frontrunner.

So...

Well, anyway, tune in next week, when Blitzer goes after the truth about which candidate is the most flame-retardant. (Our money's on Gilmore!)

Related:
Maybe Cafferty's Too Tall To Be President [TV Newser]
Is presidential race a simple matter of standing tall? [The Pendulum Online]

Previously, on Eat The Press:
The Most Trusted Name In Surreptitious Height-Adjustments