The long and the short of it

America likes its presidents tall. In the modern era, since the end of World War II, the taller of the two main presidential candidates has had an overhwleming advantage in elections. In fact, only 25% of presidential elections since then have gone to the shorter of the two candidates, with Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush (twice) being the only presidents to have overcome taller rivals. And post-1900, nobody 5ft 9in or under has ever been elected president (5ft 7in William McKinley, elected in 1900, was the last reasonably small chap to make it to the White House.)

This is possibly a bad omen for the 6ft 1in Barack Obama. While he easily defeated the 5ft 9in John McCain (above) in 2008, this year he's up against the marginally taller Mitt Romney, who's 6ft 2in.