Bartlet for President . . . or not.

I’ve spent the a lot of time recently re-watching The West Wing, one of my favorite shows ever, and I can’t help but to wonder whether President Jed Bartlett could be elected President in real life if he existed as a real person.  President Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, is presented as the ideal President; strong, wise, educated, frank, diplomatic, quick-witted, excelling both domestically and internationally, and were it not for his plot-advancing case of MS, healthy.  He really should be perfectly electable if not for one big reason why he would never make it.  Ten points if you can guess it before reading the next paragraph.

He’s too short.  It's an unavoidable fact that we in America like to elect tall Presidents.  In the last 100 years – 25 elections – the shorter of the final two candidates has won only six times, two of those victories belonging to George W. Bush, who is not himself a short man, but was just fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to go up against two super-six-footers (Gore and Kerry).  In two elections, the candidates were the same height, but in the remaining 17, the taller man won.  Sheen, by the way, is five foot seven, shorter than any Chief Executive we've had in over 100 years..

There is an interesting contrast here, which I think goes a long way to explaining the phenomenon: in the 25 older elections when the comparative heights are available (to me, via Wikipedia, at least), the shorter candidate won 14 times, with two equal-height contests.  The difference, I suspect, was photography - the sea change occurred almost just at the point in history where the camera became available to reporters on the campaign trail.  It's one thing to hear that Lincoln is taller than Douglas, but it's another beast entirely to see the two men standing together, looking rather like Mutt and Jeff.

So are we to blame?  Are we really that superficial that a candidate who is otherwise perfectly qualified – if not overly so – to run our country would be dismissed out of hand because he doesn’t tower over his aides and bodyman?  Maybe, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Part of the job is to represent our nation diplomatically, to encourage people in rousing stump speeches, to address Congress and occasionally even to influence them into voting your way.  All of these things are much more effective for a tall man; try to imagine Lyndon Johnson intimidating Senators in his office as he did if he was 5'7", and you'll visualize my meaning.  We may miss out on a James Madison or two out there, but the cameras don't go away once the campaign is over; the advantages that height gives will continue to be useful after he takes his seat in the Oval.

I suspect the producers of The West Wing were conscious of this, but overlooked it because they weren't about to give up on the simply fantastic Sheen just because of his height.  They certainly seemed to compensate with the other Presidential-types in the storyline: 6'2" Tim Matheson played John Hoynes, once the front runner for the seat and later taken in as Bartlett’s first Vice President.  He later resigns, and is replaced by 5’11” Gary Cole as Bob Russell, the munchkin of this paragraph.  Bartlet’s predecessor is never shown on screen, but the one former President that is is played by towering 6’5” James Cromwell; Sheen literally reaches up to his sternum.  6’2” John Goodman plays a Speaker of the House who becomes de facto President for a few episodes when Bartlet temporarily steps down, and I hope I don’t give away the end of the show by saying that Bartlet’s successor is played by 6’3” Jimmy Smits, who defeats 6’2” Alan Alda.

I suppose that’s enough evidence to simply say that Bartlet is the exception to the rule, and could be the Jimmy Carter-esque short guy that pulls off the upset.  Be that as it may, I have a hard time believing that someone that low to the ground could win in these 24-hour-news times, what with television constantly beaming images of the top of a President’s head bobbing along a sidewalk, lost among the forest of Secret Service redwoods that would invariably be surrounding him.