Are you sizing up the GOP presidential candidates?
Oct 28, 2015, 1:39 PM | Updated: 2:23 pm
Tom Tangney notes that taller presidential candidates win two-thirds of the time. (AP)
(AP)
Do you know the most Googled question about Jeb Bush?
It’s not his economic plan or his record in Florida. It’s also not his family connections or what the name “Jeb” means.
Rather, the most searched question about one of the leading men vying for the Republican nomination is: “How tall is Jeb Bush?”
“Vote for Jeb, he’s 6-foot-4,”
It turns out that height may play a role, perhaps subconsciously, in presidential races. Taller candidates win more often than not.
“As a rule, taller candidates tend to do better,” co-host Tom Tangney said. “Most of the candidates for the presidency tend to be taller than the average man or woman. About two-thirds of the time, the taller candidate wins.”
With that said, there always some exceptions.
“You know who is also 6-foot-4?” Tom asked. “George Pataki.”
Pataki is also running for the presidential nomination from the GOP. Both Pataki and Bush are slated to take part in a GOP debate tonight on CNBC. However, since Pataki is among the four lowest polling candidates, he will be joining Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal and Lindsey Graham at 3 p.m. Bush, meanwhile, will face nine other candidates at 5 p.m., including current front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
Much like Bush, Trump, who claims a lot of headlines, is 6 feet 3 inches tall.
“You know who the shortest ones are?” Tom asked. “Lindsey Graham is really short, at 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7, and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are 5 foot 8 and 5 foot 10,” he said.
Just to add a little useless trivia to the mix, Curley noted that the shortest president was James Maddison, at 5 feet 5 inches tall. Of course, it was a lot more difficult to gauge a candidate’s height in 1809.
