Reich is hardly the first pol to win affability points from a perceived shortcoming. "They told me to be short," he says at a speech in Peabody. "I'm used to taking on giants," he says to a group in Salem. "When I started in Washington I was 6 foot 2," he tells a group of voters in Milford. "At some psychological level that might be absolutely right. "Now, who knows?" Reich says, continuing on the theme of whether short people compensate behaviorally for their stature. But the list of short and embattled leaders is long, from Hun (Attila The, about 5 feet) to Perot (Ross, 5-5). The prototype is Napoleon, he of the little man's complex.
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"The classic assumption with people who are short is that they're compensating, particularly if they do anything that is even slightly ambitious," says Reich. So far, it's working, with Reich drawing big crowds and good poll numbers. His campaign has determined that Reich's height can be a vehicle for attention and, in some ways, distinction. Now comes Reich, turning the notion of political stature on its head.
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Washington Irving dismissed the shortest president - 5-4 James Madison - as "a withered little apple-john." Madison often wore a hat to make himself look taller. Thomas Dewey (5 feet 8) was dubbed "the little man on a wedding cake," Michael Dukakis (5 feet 8) a "dwarf." Only four U.S. While candidates must appeal to the little people to get votes, it's called "higher office" for a reason - the taller pol has won 21 of the past 25 presidential elections. It prepared Reich for a life in politics, a cesspool of heightism. Should we feel guilt in noting this, to harp on this most shallow aspect of a substantial man? Reich - former labor secretary, author of eight books, professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University - has long suffered for his height: When he was a first-grader in Upstate New York, third-grade bullies would dunk his head into the boys'-room toilet. Reich, 55, is running for governor of Massachusetts. His two sons were taller than he is by the time they were 10. His tie hangs an inch and a half beneath his belt buckle, or just above his knees. Robert Reich is eating his oatmeal and his shoes don't touch the kitchen floor. There is, right off, the issue of the candidate's height.