George,

People will say Kerry won [in Iowa] because he painted himself as JFK and Bill Clinton, and that Edwards was close because he was both positive and a great talker.

However, it looks like the voters lined up for the taller candidates in Iowa, with only Gephardt falling short of his proper position. In a sense, this was a victory for Dean, overcoming Gephardt's 4-1/4" height advantage, but since he lost to the 3-1/4" taller Edwards, part of that is attributable to the weakness of Gephardt.

The only clear outcome then is that Gephardt lost, badly. Any positive for Dean surpassing the height bias will have to wait till New Hampshire, where the slightly taller Lieberman and Clark await in addition to the twin towers of Kerry & Edwards.

Kevin A. Hayden, 5' 9" (electronic mail, January 20, 2004)

Portland, OR

Editor's Note: Kevin Hayden runs a group weblog entitled American Street. See also related article, Things May Be Looking Up for Shorter Candidates.