I honestly never thought about or heard about his height. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a couple of inches shorter now than he was when shot down over Vietnam due to age, malnutrition, and abuse. (Isn’t there a height limit for pilots?)
ETA: [reliable source]John McCain is always lying about his height. He lie about his height all the time. One time Frank Sinatra came in here and sat in this chair. I said Frank ‘you hang out with John McCain, just between me and you, how tall is John McCain?’ You know what Frank told me, he said ‘hey, John McCain is 3 foot 7 inches tall.’ Three foot seven inches tall![/reliable source]
Admittedly, I’ve only skimmed the thread, so if someone has presented acceptable proof of McCain’s height at 5’7", I’d say something’s wrong with Palin at 5’6".
Here’s a photo of them hugging. Notice that Palin is wearing high heels that appear to be at least 2’-3" high, so unless McCain’s wearing lifts in his shoes, something I’ve never heard mentioned, he is clearly 3" to 4" taller than she is.
In a way I’m surprised this hasn’t come up before–not exactly as presented in this thread–but in terms of general interest. Military pilots don’t, or at least until recently didn’t, tend to be very big people. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those guys are 5’8" or less. Women, too, although in there case it differentiates them less pronouncedly from average.
Why should this come up at all? Does this have any relevance to the choice of MCcain. I guess I could bring up the big mole next to Obama’s nose then, right?
Fighter pilots were and still are restricted by height. This is no big secret, it is all about ergonomics.
We seriously can do better than this people. Attack him on the issues all you want. Height? REALLY?
As I stated in post #14, I think a candidate’s height is a stupid thing to base a vote on.
But I brought this subject up because I am interested in understanding how the electorate thinks and feels about a subject that does influence elections. You’re welcome to join the discussion if you share this interest. If not, no one’s forcing you.
The fact that McCain was a pilot is not relevant to the apparent disparity in how the electorate thinks of his height, which people (myself included) seem to have been largely unaware of. It’s not as if people have en masse concluded, “I realize McCain’s short – must be because he was a pilot – so I’ll overlook it”.
And pilots aren’t restricted much by height: by my reading of the cites, a male pilot could be as tall as 6’3". My current boss in a former USAF pilot, and he’s 6’0".
Finally, I haven’t seen anyone in this thread ‘attacking’ McCain (or any other cadidate) over their height, unless you’re referring to the obviously sarcastic responses.
