Too short to be president?

Andrew Sullivan says Jonathan Chait says "electoral politics is a highly superficial field" and rules out GOP hopefuls like Mitch Daniels, in part, because, well, he's really short. One of Sully's reader writes: "Consider the fourth president, James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, who checked in between 5’3” and 5’4” and weighed barely more than 100 pounds. As a young orator they say friends taunted him by calling “Jemmy, stand up!” as he stood at the podium. His presidency had its ups and downs, but he was assuredly a very great leader to whom the country is indebted for its civil liberties tradition. Could anyone imagine a man of Madison’s stature being elected today? And isn’t that a shame!" Sadly, the reader is probably right. I also doubt that John Adams or John Quincy Adams would pass muster. On a good day, both presidents stood a mere 5'7". By the way, Abe Lincoln (6'4") is our tallest president to date. Thomas Jefferson, FDR and LBJ all stood 6'2" as does Bill Clinton. JFK was 6'0". George W. Bush is 5'11" and Obama is 6'1" (as was George Washington).