At 6’3″, Jeb! is already the tallest candidate in the GOP field. Numerous commentators have pointed that out in the last few hours — because on Wednesday night, as the candidates lined up for their photo op before the debate, Governor Bush rose up on tiptoe — several times, according to alert witnesses — and made himself a few inches taller.
As with his somewhat odd choice of Margaret Thatcher to be the new face of the $10 bill (Thatcher, of course, while a great stateswoman, was British), Jeb! found himself explaining the moments on tiptoe the next day. He says he was looking for his wife in the audience:
“I was looking over to the press to see where my wife was sitting because she’s the love of my life and just I need to have eye contact with her before we started,” Bush explained. “You’ve been married 42 years that’s the kind of thing you do.”
I see no reason to disbelieve him. That said, Jeb! does seem to have to “explain” an awful lot. One begins to get the uneasy sense that a Jeb! presidency would be a sort of ongoing, multifaceted pratfall.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
That said, Bush’s turn on tiptoe does raise an interesting possibility for outfacing, say, Vladimir Putin, in the all-important realm of non-verbal communication. It’s a simple tactic, one somebody should probably have thought of before. If it doesn’t come naturally to Bush, his advisors could simply remind him, when he’s up there on a platform with Putin, “Jeb! Remember to look for your wife.”
