Who You Calling Shorty?

Dennis Kucinich is consistently on message, consistently liberal, consistently Democrat, consistently anti-war. You may not like his policies, but at least you can tell what those policies are. And yet the media -- the allegedly liberal media who ought to be falling all over themselves to make Kucinich king -- ignore the most Democratic Democrat in the presidential race... except to make jokes about his height. Evidently if you're 5'7", you can't be a world leader (evidently the Clinton people haven't passed that memo on to Hillary -- 5'6").

We thus read with interest Time's coverage of its Person of the Year, Russian President and soon-to-be Prime Minister Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin... all 5'6" of him, by reporter Adi Ignatius's reckoning. Funny -- no jokes about height there.

The Madville Times offers no more endorsement of capitalist autocracy and political oppression than does Time (contrary to Senator Thune's ill-read assessment and Mr. Heppler's exasperated grumbling, Time's Person of the Year designation "is not and never has been an honor"). This morning's message is simply this: Height doesn't matter: bringing your country a clear vision and a consistent message does. Dennis Kucinich's vision and message stand head, shoulders, knees and toes above the other cookie-cutter corporate apologists running for the American presidency.