HOW TO TELL WHO'S GOING TO WIN

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JOHN MCCASLIN, WASHINGTON TIMES - It's become apparent nine months
before Election Day that the 2008 presidential election will pit
Democrat Barack Obama against Republican Mitt Romney. . . 

We've just finished reading Los Angeles lawyer - syndicated columnist
Ben Shapiro's new book, "Project President: Bad Hair & Botox on the Road
to the White House," which examines what it really takes — the right
image — to win the White House. . . 

Shapiro writes that size does matter. . . Take George Washington and
Abraham Lincoln. Two of this country's greatest presidents were a good
head taller than the average American patriot and Union soldier — the
latter barely 5 feet, 8 inches tall.

As for today, Mr. Obama of Illinois stands at almost 6 feet, 2 inches.
And Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is exactly 6-feet-2.
Consider, at the same time, that Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton
measures 5-feet-6, while Republican John McCain is 5-feet-7.

As for Jimmy Carter, Mr. Shapiro says he "got lucky in 1976. For the
first time since William McKinley in 1896, Carter won the presidency as
the shorter, non-incumbent candidate."

And finally, regarding George W. Bush defeating Al Gore in 2000 and John
Kerry in 2004 — 6-feet-1 and 6-feet-4, respectively - now you know why
the president wears cowboy boots.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20080130/NATION02/432657519&template=printart


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