It's one thing to argue that John McCain is too old, too liberal, too conservative (if you're an Obama supporter), or has too many health problems to be President.
It takes a massive load of chutzpah, however, to assert that McCain is unqualified to be President because he's too short. Yet, that's what Marion McKeone, an Irish journalist, wrote in the May 25, 2008 edition of the Sunday Tribune, an Irish national newspaper.
Clearly of the opinion that John McCain is too conservative, McKeone writes, "[A]mericans don't want a president who sounds like Dr. Evil but looks like Mini-Me. A leader that stands head and shoulders above global thugs is a literal as well as a metaphorical ideal."
Get that? Doesn't matter about McCain's military service, his long experience in the Senate, the administration he would call upon, or whatever else. Because, writes McKeone, "It's bad for the fragile American psyche if the leader of the free world is the midget at heads of state photo ops."
"This is especially true," continues McKeone, "when he promises as pugnacious a foreign policy as McCain does, what with bombing Iran and kicking around Iraq for another 100 years." (What did I tell you about this paddy reporter being of the mindset that McCain is too conservative?)
It's certainly true that some people who exercise their right to vote abuse it by choosing style over substance, but Americans are not so fragile that they'd vote in an extreme liberal with too little experience simply because he stood taller. McKeone, of course, disagrees:
"Barack Obama, on the other hand, may be shy of experience on the international front but he is over six foot tall and possesses the sort of physical grace and presence that would eclipse any head of state likely to share a stage with him."
So, according to McKeone, it's OK to sign the house away, as Obama will surely do, as long as he towers above the other world leaders he happens to share a platform with.
Make sense? I thought not.
Because McKeone lives in New York, she is obviously of the self-important opinion that she knows Americans and can call the shots on behalf of the rest of us. That takes one hell of an ego in and of itself.
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
Mark, I read the column and that Mini-Me remark was clearly tongue-in-cheek. It was also just part of a wider examination of the question of McCain's (literal) fitness to be President. There are a number of legitimate health concerns about him, which McKeone detailed; and rightly or wrongly, physical stature is often perceived as an indicator of general health.
American politics, especially at the national level, is these days largely (pun intended) all about style over substance... or in this case, not enough vertical substance! McKeone was being realistic, if cynical.
I was reading an account last night of FDR's rise to the presidency, and the many potential pitfalls he encountered over the years which might have prevented him from becoming president. Among these, the writer speculated that had the media been less deferential in those days; if they had not accepted that anything outside of Roosevelt's political life was none of their business; if they had photographed and reported on him being carried from place to place and supported by caregivers because he was barely able to stand by himself, let alone walk; if all of that had been made public, then he would probably not have stood a cat in hell's chance of reaching the White House.
Times change...
2 - Clavos
"Times change."
Indeed they do, Doc.
And in this aspect, mostly for the worse. As your FDR anecdote above notes, we (humanity, not simply any specific nation) have become so superficial and shallow, that physical appearance and other meaningless qualities have come to overshadow the real measures of an individual's character in the minds of the voters and of those who shape and manipulate their outlook and behavior, the "journalists."
3 - Surfer
MEM: "Because McKeone lives in New York, she is obviously of the self-important opinion that she knows Americans and can call the shots on behalf of the rest of us. That takes one hell of an ego in and of itself."
Lol! Projecting a bit there old boy?
Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black Mark??
Let's change that to: "Because Manning lives in London, he's obviously of the self-important opinion that he knows Americans .... blah blah blah."
This is some of your best work mate :)
4 - Surfer
Sorry, make that "Britons", not Americans.
That Irish journo has every bit as much right to call things as she sees them in America as you do in Britain Mark. And of course, you do ... a lot.
There can't be one rule for you pontificating on what the poms need to do to run their society properly, and another for a non-amnerican living in the US.
Give yourself an uppercut.
5 - Surfer
Having said all that, however, I do agree with the gist of your argument.
McCain's height makes no difference to his ability to run the world's most powerful country.
I reckon, even though his politics don't dovetail with mine, that he's probably more qualified than Obama - particularly given what he's lived through.
Let's hope that when he does become president, he lives up to our expectations.
6 - Dan Miller
I am concerned that Senator McCain is too old as well as too short -- short on viable proposals for what ails the country. Senator Obama is even shorter (NB: viable = I like). I am not even sure that either even has much of an idea about what does ail the country.
What I am really concerned about, however, is who will be Senator McCain's running mate. There is one point I haven't seen much ventilated: Speaker Pelosi will most likely remain Speaker in the next Congress. Should President McCain die or become permanently incapacitated, and should his VP suffer a similar fate, Speaker Pelosi becomes President Pelosi. Aside from the slight alliteration, there is nothing even partially pleasing about such a pernicious prospect.
Dan
7 - Baronius
If memory serves, the taller man won the presidency 23 out of 25 times in the twentieth century.
8 - Dr Dreadful
I am not even sure that either even has much of an idea about what does ail the country.
Does anything ail the country?
More than usual, I mean.
Discuss.
9 - Dan Miller
Doc
Here is a list, in what my spreadsheed decided is alphabetical order:
Alphabet Agencies
Conservatives
Corruption
Court Congestion
Crime
Education
Environment
Foreign Policy
Fuel Prices
Health
Housing Crunch
I like = I want = I need = I deserve
Inflation
Lack of Energy Policy
Lack of Immigration Policy
Liberals
Moderates
Pork Barrel Spending
Race
Silly Subsidizes
Silly Taxes
Terrorism
Transportation
Unchecked Governmental Spending
Wars
Waste
It is only a starter list, of course, and I probably forgot some. Some are of more recent vintage than others, but that doesn't seem to be very significant. Now perhaps some kind soul will elaborate.
Dan
10 - Dr Dreadful
Well, Dan, with a few exceptions, the items on your list have always been invoked as harbingers of doom. And yet here we still are. The more modern ones are just replacements for others not on your list (women's suffrage, high-mortality infectious diseases, Injuns, non-northern European immigration, etc etc) that in former times were also seen by many as symptoms of a national sickness but which no longer concern us.
I'm just not convinced that, overall, the country is particularly less healthy than in the past.
11 - Clavos
Um Doc,
I think "Non Northern European immigration" is still very much of concern to a substantial portion of the electorate.
12 - Dr Dreadful
True, Clav.
But nowadays, they at least mostly pretend they're concerned about immigration in general, and not just from points south...
13 - Clavos
...all the more reason not to play into their racist hidden agenda, no?
14 - Dr Dreadful
Exactly... I think.
...Tell me what point you're arguing again?
15 - Dr Dreadful
BTW...
Mark: "most of the iconic and well-known and renowned actors, from Tom Cruise to Michael J. Fox, from Al Pacino to Martin Sheen, from Elijah Wood to Dustin Hoffman, are 5-foot-7 or under."
Robert De Niro: 5'9"
Matt Damon: 5'10"
Owen Wilson: 5'10"
George Clooney: 5'11"
Brad Pitt: 5'11½"
Tom Hanks: 6'0"
Tommy Lee Jones: 6'0½"
Harrison Ford: 6'1"
Samuel L Jackson: 6'2½"
Morgan Freeman: 6'2½"
Etc, etc.
La-la-la-la-laaaaaa...
16 - Clavos
"Well, Dan, with a few exceptions, the items on your list have always been invoked as harbingers of doom. And yet here we still are."
That almost sounds like resignation to all our problems.
The fact is, "always been invoked" or not, Dan's list is of real problems which, if we are to move forward, must be addressed, sooner rather than later.
17 - Dr Dreadful
Of course there are problems which must be addressed. My point is that we've survived thus far and there's nothing glaringly defective about the current crop of humanity (the Lindsay Lohans and Robert Mugabes of this world notwithstanding) which makes me think we'll be any less successful. Of necessity, because getting 6 billion people to all move in the same direction is impossible, we usually muddle through rather than leap forward magnificently.
If you'll forgive me for saying so, your crisis talk sometimes sounds (albeit for different reasons) rather Hirschhornian or Realist-like.
18 - Clavos
I'll have to meditate on whether I can find it within me to forgive you, Doc.
That was a most grievous comparison; I am cut to the quick. :>)
19 - Marion McKeone
Lighten up, Mark!
20 - Mark Edward Manning
Marion, with all due respect, your article was deeply insulting to men of my (and McCain's) height, not to mention the fact that you completely brushed aside McCain's considerable bravery and honor.
I am, however, somewhat pleased that you came across my piece and responded to it. -- MEM
21 - zingzing
short people ain't got no reason to live.