George,

I was just reading your rather prescient article "Things May Be Looking Up for Shorter Voters".

Now that John Kerry - as Jay Matthews pointed out, the tallest Democrat in the field - seems likely to grab the nomination, will you be forced to revert to the classical height theory of presidential accession?

Of course, if 2004 turns out to depend on the Supreme Court once again, the pollsters' jobs will be somewhat simplified: just nine votes to count, and nine elevations above the floor to be measured in the interest of avoiding vertical bias.

Regards,

Ralph Dratman (electronic mail, March 15, 2004)