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A height requirement for secretary of state?

3 min read
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What do “Guernica,” “Moonlight Sonata” and “The Federalist Papers” all have in common?

They were created by people we would classify as being short.

Pablo Picasso managed to become one the most revered and influential artists of the 20th century, all while being 5 feet 4 inches tall. It should also be noted that he fathered a child at age 67 and lived to age 91. Meanwhile, Ludwig van Beethoven managed to create symphonic works that have more than stood the test of time while being just 5’3″ – and deaf, too. And James Madison crafted “The Federalist Papers,” served as Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of the state and succeeded him upon Jefferson’s return to Monticello.

And yet he stood at only 5’4.” Just like Picasso.

Then, there’s Mahatma Gandhi, Voltaire, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Napoleon Bonaparte.

You get the picture. People who are not as towering as Abraham Lincoln or as Indiana County’s own Jimmy Stewart can accomplish a thing or two in life. Even though studies have shown that shorter people tend to nab fewer dates and promotions and earn less than their taller peers – we are still prisoners to our evolutionary biology, it seems – short people are not condemned to a life of sadsack underachievement.

Someone needs to get this message to President Trump.

One amusing detail that has emerged in the ongoing feud between the president and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who was once a Trump ally and being considered for the GOP ticket last year, is that Corker was among the candidates Trump was looking at to be his secretary of state. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he would likely have been a solid and knowledgeable choice. Instead, Trump chose Rex Tillerson, who had never previously served in the diplomatic corps and had no experience in elected office. The reason Trump chose Tillerson? He was taller. The 5’7″ Corker, in Trump’s estimation, was too short.

The president kept hammering away at Corker’s height during a Twitter tirade earlier this week, calling Corker “liddle.”

In its first nine months, the Trump presidency has, of course, been unconventional. As Peter Baker wrote in The New York Times, this White House, “has always seemed to be at a crossroads between cutthroat politics and television drama, presided over by a seasoned showman who has made a career of keeping the audience engaged and coming back for more.” But it could well be that Trump will be the first – and perhaps only – president in our history who has treated filling cabinet posts as if he is a scout from central casting.

Sidestepping short people for important jobs – in any profession – is, well, short-sighted.

Anyone who has followed the news since the outset of this young presidency is well aware that Trump’s polling numbers have been anemic at best. There are a lot of people out there who are Corker’s height or shorter. Right now, the president can ill afford to alienate them.

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