February 27, 2022

Who thinks it's a good idea to taunt Putin over his short stature? I'm starting a list of these height supremacists.

1. Mitt Romney: "We're seeing a small, feral-eyed man who was trying to shape the world in the image where, once again, Russia would be an empire, and that's not going to happen."

2. Maureen Dowd: "As for Putin’s Napoleonic megalomania, perhaps the Russia expert Nina Khrushcheva summed him up best in a Vanity Fair podcast: 'He’s a small man of five-six saying he’s five-seven.'"

3. [TO BE CONTINUED]

122 comments:

cassandra lite said...

He has an interesting coping mechanism for when cameras are there and he's with a taller man: tucks his chin down and stares at the man's mouth, so the photos don't catch him looking up.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Vanity Fair - LOL. Hillarywoodlander offical state run media.

Butkus51 said...

Same height as Fauci. Makes sense.

Achilles said...

The Aristocracy needs a war and a bogeyman to hide their manifest failure here at home.

Kevin said...

I know the list is not complete, but “good idea” and these people do not intersect.

tim maguire said...

I didn't know Putin was short and I would take Romney's comment as figurative. Dowd leaves no doubt she's making fun of his height. As a 5'8" guy who's in the slowly shrinking stage of life, I don't appreciate being reminded just how little height I can give back before I'm officially short.

Ice Nine said...

I don't recall Putin's ever having been taunted for his short stature. Moreover, I wasn't aware that he was especially short. I do know that he is pretty well ripped for his age. Regardless, there walks a tough and supremely confident man; I doubt that he would be bothered by such lame teasing as height jibes.

gilbar said...

Robert Reich! he used to taunt Putin over Putin being So Tall
Wait, that's a different type of taunting

wendybar said...

The left has been poking the Russian bear since Obama was in office. They have been blaming everything on Russia for years. Biden is clueless. Had the weekend off to inject all the meds to make him sound coherent?? Who knows at this point.

Bob Boyd said...

Don't know if this one counts:

"Putin's height creates an imposing first impression, but don't be fooled. Like most tall people, he's kind of a jerk." - Robert Reich

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Teddy Roosevelt said "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." Machiavelli said "Never do an enemy a small hurt." Both Romney's and Dowd's comments violate those maxims. But, what can you expect from a squish Republican and a progressive? Calling Putin "shorty" will do nothing to make him stop his aggression and will just egg him on.

Joe Biden created this crisis with his restrictions on oil and gas production. That gave Putin the money to stage his invasion. Putin bought Joe with Hunter's Burisma and Moscow payments. Joe is an honest politician, once he's been bought, he stays bought.

Bob Boyd said...

America's respect for Mitt Romney wasn't stolen. He lost it.

Wince said...

What else can you argue when you know Putin would not have attacked Kyiv had Biden not been president?

wildswan said...

I feel inclined to say that 5'6" isn't short; it's taller than me and "taller than me" - what more do we need in a man. You wake up and see who you're in bed with - do you say he's short compared to LeBron James? So now we're in bed with Shorty McPutin and what about that. We're in bed with him because we're financing his war through oil purchases which we need because Biden (very tall) shut off our own pipelines and energy sources and made us dependent on Shorty unless we're willing to face shortages. But what I don't like about waking up to find the US in bed with Shorty is that I wake up wondering whether Zeleney has made it through the night. And his wife and children. Shorty has squads of soldiers out combing through towns and fields looking for a chance to murder this women and her children. And to murder this elected leader. I find it hard to believe that in our time anyone, even someone short, is behaving like that to advance a political goal. But Shorty knows we need his oil, thanks to Biden. And Shorty knows that the people who shut down US pipelines, permits and refineries and who made Shorty our actual alternate energy source and who financed the hunt for Zeleney's wife and children, these people were put in places of power by identity politics and Shorty knows that they are too incompetent to know what they've done and too stupid to fix it if they noticed and too busy counting their money and their new houses to do anything, anyhow. So Shorty sends out soldiers to kill women and children and in return, we stand tall, we let him know that he's only going to get $45 billion a day, not $47 and he'll have to bank in Lichtenstein, not Luxembourg. That'll learn ya, Mr. Short. What? You say you want a pallet of cash? Let me get back to you.

Michael K said...

Romney voted to impeach the guy who was Putin's worst enemy. Romney helped open the gas spigot for Putin.

Scott said...

Go, meme, go! Go, meme, go! Go, meme, go!

Lyle Sanford, RMT said...

I love your catching things like this!

Big Mike said...

Having your finger just inches from a button that launches nuclear-tipped missiles adds several inches to your height.

Dave Begley said...

Putin has nukes and might use them. Therefore, an excellent idea to taunt him about his height. NYC blown to bits thanks to M. Dowd.

JK Brown said...

So like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, all not approaching 6 foot. On the other hand, all a far larger political presence than Romney, who was easily defeated by a bad debate moderator

Lucien said...

But . . . how big are his hands?

robother said...

Taking their cues from Joe Biden, who used every opportunity in 2020 to effectively brag that he made Putin his bitch. (How'd that work out?)

Biden, Romney and Maureen Dowd perfectly illustrate how deeply unserious our "elites" are. They taunt Putin with personal insults, accuse him of being a madman, even a Hitler, but implicitly assume that he won't literally go nuclear.

Jokah Macpherson said...

We’re a nation created by a short man (Madison).

JK Brown said...

"President Volodymyr Zelensky’s height is 5 ft 7 inches."

But Zelensky is towering over Western/NATO leaders, and politicians like Romney, these days.

Jokah Macpherson said...

You don’t see the Pygmies invading Ukraine. If anyone would have a chip on their shoulder it would be them.

tcrosse said...

A big man the size of a small man.

Michael P said...

Putin has been implicated in a variety of war crimes and human-rights abuses, and also actively cultivates his public image. He is a short, fingered vulgarian.

(What has Graydon Carter's Air Mail said about this invasion, anyway?)

Earnest Prole said...

Though tiny Putin prides himself on being perfectly formed.

Anthony said...

It's because the bulk of our "ruling elite" stopped maturing at around age 12.

Bilwick said...

Real men don't ridicule other men for their lack of height.

Real men ridicule other men for having small dicks.

Bilwick said...

Real men don't ridicule other men for their lack of height.

Real men ridicule other men for having small dicks.

John henry said...

Nina kruscheva is Nikita kruschev's great granddaughter and (by adoption) granddaughter

John LGBTQBNY Henry

Michael K said...

Joe Biden created this crisis with his restrictions on oil and gas production. That gave Putin the money to stage his invasion. Putin bought Joe with Hunter's Burisma and Moscow payments. Joe is an honest politician, once he's been bought, he stays bought.

Exactly ! I might even watch his State of the Union speech next week. Not much comedy these days so it should be interesting.

Clark said...

I await Mr. Romney's attack on James Madison, leading Framer of the US Constitution, for being only about 5'3", and on Sir Winston Churchill for being about 5'6".
- Publius Minor

Christopher B said...

Now do the important stuff like how long his .... fingers are.

Lurker21 said...

Reminds me of Rubio's "small hands" comment (originally from Spy magazine, I believe). It's intended to irritate the target and get under his skin, but it looks petty, ineffective, and likely to backfire.

Heightism is connected to ageism and classism (if those are all real words). The younger you are and the more affluent your family was when you were young the more likely you are to have had better nutrition and turn out taller. I'm not sure if this still applies, but it does seem to fit what we saw in the last century. Calling out even an evil tyrant because his country was still recovering from devastation when he was growing up could be seen as a cheap shot.

Joe Smith said...

This post is extremely short-sighted.

Does Putin have large hands and feet?

Lurker21 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lurker21 said...

"Speak incoherently and carry a chocolate-vanilla ice cream cone" does seem to be working as a foreign policy maxim.

Jupiter said...

Romney lost an election to Barack Obama. A fair election, as far as I know.

Jupiter said...

And while we are on the subject, Dowd's got small tits.

Bob Boyd said...

'Russia's nuclear forces went on high alert' means they took the step stool out of the closet, unfolded it and put it in front of the big red button.

madAsHell said...

Romney......the cuckold.

Limited blogger said...

so... Mitt Romney won the debate?

Carol said...

Its' worse than that. The usual leftist suspects are resorting to ridicule of his genitals, because Everyone Knows that mean guys have micro-penises.

I'd like to ask some of these c*nts how they know.

mccullough said...

What’s Putin’s vertical leap? What’s Romney’s?

We need an NFL combine system for world leaders to measure their vertical, broad jump, 40 yard dash, three-cone and shuttle times, and how many bench reps of 225 pounds they can put up.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Some writers/speakers go for an erudite flair while attempting to sound convincing, others reach for the more familiar unrefined pejoratives, while seemingly forgetting the great communications transformation underway.

And that's the great struggle of the American enterprise... The argument between the Larry David camp - we shouldn't try so hard and comedy bitter clingers, which feels as though they have to go to no-go zones to get a laugh.

rhhardin said...

You call somebody short if you think it bothers them. It's not a question of the woke discovering a new sensitivity.

Amexpat said...

In general, I don't think taunting about physical stature is a good idea. And if he does in fact have a Napoleonic complex, then is it smart to push the sensitive buttons of a man who can push the nuclear button? Best to speak softly and carry a big stick.

Also, Napoleon didn't have a Napoleonic complex, that myth is a legacy from British propaganda at the time. He was of average height for a French male at the time, though smaller than an average officer and the elite guards that surrounded him.

johns said...

Yeah, let's not incite Putin by calling him short. But maybe Putin doesn't read Maureen Dowd.

Narayanan said...

Although his parents Maria Shelomova and Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin had two other sons, they both died as young children. As a result, according to Childhood Biography, they became "protective parents who did the best they could to keep [Putin] alive and well."

=====
looks like Putin got hugs from mom and pop


Hilllary gave him "?RESET?"

Putin to Hillary : watch me ->>> this is RESET

Putin to Romney : watch me ->>> I am the 80's; 90's etc

JSTRM said...

He's taller when he stands on his wallet.

gadfly said...

Japanese gamer, Kana "Tanukana" Tani said, “Men who are under 170 cm don’t have human rights.” For my fellow imperial system users, that’s just under 5 ft 7 inches. Sorry, short kings. She also apparently added that men under that height should look into getting bone-lengthening surgery. Likewise, she went after women with small breasts. She said that any woman who's an 'A' cup "shouldn't have human rights" either.

Funny how Napoleon Bonaparte was called short when at 5' 6" tall was the average for men back in his day. But the Napoleon Complex bears his name anyway.

So short people have no reason to live unless they are nasty Russian dictators like Putin and Stalin.

Curious George said...

"Big Mike said...
Having your finger just inches from a button that launches nuclear-tipped missiles adds several inches to your height."

Not just your height.

Iman said...

Finger inches from the button, with a thumb up his bum and Robert’s yer father’s brother.

Achilles said...

Russel Brand lays it out pretty well.

There really isn't much difference between Biden or Johnson or Trudeau or Morrison and Putin.

Biden and Putin are really indistinguishable morally.

Same with the people that support them.

gadfly said...

Vladimir Putin -- nicknamed “Pootie Poot” by 5’11.5” George W. Bush -- stands at 5’7.5”

PB said...

Cue the song, "Short People"

rhhardin said...

Short People Got No Reason to Live Randy Newman

gadfly said...

Michael K said...
Romney voted to impeach the guy who was Putin's worst enemy. Romney helped open the gas spigot for Putin.

Never forget that as president Donald Trump led an organized campaign to withhold military aid and blackmail the Ukrainians. And that Republicans let him get away it.

Narr said...

Shorty Putin so short, he gotta steal a y from Zelenskyy to look bigger.

Khrushcheva and Reich, nightly at the Algonquin.

Isn't Putin a judoka of some ranking? That's very short-mannish NTTAWWT.

And only silly Englishpersons and their hirelings say the Emperor was short. They know as well as anyone that in France the pouces are longer and the livres bigger.





Narr said...
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Narr said...
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n.n said...

Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry) is Pro-Choice dogma.

Inga said...

Trump’s buddy Putin isn’t short, he’s just being picked on, how mean.

n.n said...

Heightism is connected to ageism and classism (if those are all real words)

Yes, ageism a la elective abortion a.k.a. reproductive rites a wicked solution to a hard problem a la "final solution" of the Pro-Choice religion of the Progressive Corporation... and racism, and sexism, genderism (i.e. physical and mental sex-correlated attribures), etc. are color or low-information judgments that deny women and men's dignity and agency (e.g. individual conscience), intrinsic value, and reduces human life to a negotiable commodity or judged and labeled a "burden" for social, clinical, redistributive, and fair weather causes.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

We need an NFL combine system for world leaders to measure their vertical, broad jump, 40 yard dash, three-cone and shuttle times, and how many bench reps of 225 pounds they can put up.

You let out their ability to order a two-scoop ice cream cone. Extra points for choosing chocolate, chocolate-chip ice cream. That's Biden's speciality.

JRoberts said...

RE: Biden's State of the Union address - A few years ago we watched Nancy Pelosi tear up her copy of Trump's speech. This year we'll watch Nancy cut up Joe's dinner for him.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Even a short dictator for life can make a dirty bomb and blame it on Ukraine.

Is it any wonder Poot is lying and cheating into war.. blaming Ukraine for his own war crimes. Putin learned a lot watching Biden and his corrupt press.

gadfly said...

Michael K said...
Joe Biden created this crisis with his restrictions on oil and gas production.

Biden’s orders directed the Secretary of the Interior to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters. That effectively shut down expansion of wells at Prudhoe Bay. Meanwhile oil from U.S. wells plus imports from Canada and Mexico supply all the oil we need to have for our 17.2 million barrels daily usage. Obviously we can continue to frack private lands to our hearts content.

gadfly said...

Achilles said...
Russel Brand lays it out pretty well.

Russel Brand is a nutcase full of unverifiable emotional opinions. When and where were Trump's immorality ever discussed?

Richard said...

Putin, this song is for you!

gspencer said...

Mittens is one to describe a man of stature?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Wondering if Zelenskyy will send the Klitschko brothers (6'6" and 6'7", respectively) to the negotiations on Monday.

Heartless Aztec said...

Frank Sinatra was of slight verging on small stature but I'm of the understanding that he was - ahem - more than well endowed. That should count for something. No?

cubanbob said...

A 90 year old half blind syphilitic wheelchair bound midget with a machine gun is still a very dangerous man.

Putin is none of the above and he controls thousands of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Stupid comments from Romney and Dowd simply expose how lightweight those two are.

chuck said...

Such things are traditional:

Hitler has only got one ball,
Göring has two but very small,
Himmler is rather sim'lar,
But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.

wildswan said...

Whoa, now Putin's talking about his nukes. Just hope he doesn't have a short temper and isn't short-sighted. Hard to believe the Russian Army is doing well, when Putin feels he has to mention his nukes. But apparently his attacks on kindergartners aren't going well so he's stepping up his game. Moreover, after nukes comes a more deadly weapon still aimed at the US and its allies. This will be a cyberattack consisting of broadcasts of the SOTU turned on by Alexa and Siri round the clock to undermine US and allied morale, changing citizens into zombies. Citizens!! Be Ready!! If you hear the SOTU alert, go outdoors. Have plyboard ready for your windows. Tape up any cracks around the windows through which the sound might escape and reach you. Have a bugout bag ready with Faraday cage equipment stored in it. No electronics!! Remember even your doorbell can betray you and begin to play mind-numbing words. Be alert for hidden wireless speakers.

rehajm said...

Same with the people that support them.

…or claim neutrality.

Quaestor said...

Dissing Putin over his stature gives Dowd and other leftwing propagandists the ability to fill up column-inches without visiting the subject of Biden's unbelievable incompetence and stupidity.

BUMBLE BEE said...

If the insults don't work, then it's time for the Pink Pussy Hats. Surefire stuff, Pussy Hats!

Fernandinande said...

All the elevator buttons
Oh so incredibly high

I stand today for the midget
At the size of a regular guy

Let me hold you, little man
As the parade passes by
Let me hold you, little man
We'll make believe you can fly

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Reminder - Gadfly thinks the guy who tried to kill Rittenhouse is a swell guy. boo hoo. A child rapist.

Why We’ve Decided to Tell You the Criminal Records of the Men Shot in Kenosha

Credibility - sunk.

tim in vermont said...

Hilary gave him a button that actually said ‘overcharge’ and he gave her hundreds of millions of dollars.

tim in vermont said...

It seems like people are getting a little drunk on war, but here we are, I hope we win.

rcocean said...

Every good leader can dunk a Basketball.

That's science.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Maybe the reference to Putin’s hight comes from a place of nothing but admiration for the tyrant. By that I mean, Putin might be the only white man left, who by all appearances doesn’t give a fuck. At a time when the last thing a white guy (without much power) wants to do is call attention to himself. The admiration was similar for Trump, but Trump fucked up. Barr is probably right btw.

The conversation in My Dinner with Andre has a scant reference to it. Not having read The Little Prince I can only speculate as to what it could mean.

Copy pasta to your browser 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/6omZc2r9v8I

loudogblog said...

I'm not saying that humor doesn't have a place in serious situations like this, but to insult a dangerous opponent with something that they're probably extra sensitive about is, well....dangerous. During a time of war, humor against your opponent is something to share only with your side to keep morale up. To put it out on the internet so that your opponent sees it and might be embarrassed and enraged by it is really dangerous if your opponent has a gigantic nuclear arsenal. (And is not acting rationally at the time.) It's like taking a stick and poking a rattlesnake.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Rh said… “Short People Got No Reason to Live Randy Newman”

They turned off the comments for that video ☺️

BUMBLE BEE said...

Holy Shit, that sawed off stumpy sack of shit Putin has activated Inga. Let loose the dogs of war!

Narayanan said...

time to break out WINNIE THE POOH and have Biden team send with selfies to Xi when he threatens FORMOSA

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

People saying that Trump admires and loves Putin is a mask for their own admiration and love of the tyrant.

boatbuilder said...

Mean tweets from Mittens.

Howard said...

Whatever you do, don't provoke Putin. Call him a genius for the way he invaded Ukraine instead.

ALP said...

Did you know that height is a protected class in San Francisco and Santa Cruz? See here, scroll down a bit: https://www.kts-law.com/what-is-a-protected-class/

loudogblog said...

I just saw this at Instapundit:

The trick will be figuring out a way to let Putin back down. In Sun Tzu’s words, “Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.”

gpm said...

>>Reminds me of Rubio's "small hands" comment (originally from Spy magazine, I believe).

As I recall, the Spy Magazine ("I love it; it has everything" (Philadelphia Story about a different Spy Magazine) snark for Trump was "short-fingered vulgarian."

--gpm

Danno said...

Romney may be taller, but he has had his head up his ass since he was Howard's governor.

gpm said...

>>Reminds me of Rubio's "small hands" comment (originally from Spy magazine, I believe).

As I recall, the Spy Magazine ("I love it; it has everything" (Philadelphia Story about a different Spy Magazine) snark for Trump was "short-fingered vulgarian."

--gpm

Marc in Eugene said...

Holy Shit, that sawed off stumpy sack of shit Putin has activated Inga. Let loose the dogs of war!

This made me laugh (and I didn't always disagree with Inga).

Stephen said...

If there's one aspect of Donald Trump that frustrated even his supporters it was his personalized insults directed at people far beneath a President on the status hierarchy. Unless you're a die-hard Trump partisan, punching down is not a good look. The small consolation of a Trump defeat was that we wouldn't see that kind of behavior when the government was run "by adults", no matter how mistaken their policies.

Now look at these fools poking a bear with nukes.

Maureen Dowd's reference to Nina Khrushcheva recalls the latter's great-grandfather. Nikita Khrushchev, who was 5'3". Could you imagine JFK mocking Khrushchev's height during the Cuban missile crisis? Since we're punching below the waist, I'll just say that all these would-be JFK's couldn't hold his jockstrap.

farmgirl said...

I feel all this behavior Is passive/aggressive.
So unbecoming of any world leader.

farmgirl said...

Gadfly- today’s Gospel reading was none other than Paul to the Corinthians- removing the log from your/my eye so as to help remove the splinter in your neighbors. Hence- move on to 2022. Trump’s been raked over every available coal in the campfire. Ad nauseum.

Obviously, you haven’t listened to Brand. He’s spot on.

Maynard said...

Inga is back in da house!

Carol said...

Tall people are smug, if not dumb. Short people live longer. My mother was short and lived to 98. I worked for a Vietnamese family who were all very short and long lived.

Short have more energy and can do fun sports like skating and skiing. They're closer to the ground, there's better muscle-to-weight ratio, and not so much body to sling around.

We should be so lucky.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Lilliputin

Dr Weevil said...

boatbuilder (7:01):
Better Trump's mean tweets than Biden's tween meets.

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

I'm not sure. Is Russia the preferred country to the left like they have been since about 1917 or are they the bad guys to the left that they became to get Trump in 2016ish? If they are still the bad guys to the left, then it's okay to criticize anything about Putin, especially his physical features. I think that's the rule.

Skeptical Voter said...

Oh come on Ann. At 6' 5" I am well aware of the short man's disease. But I'd never taunt Putin over it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't see it.

chickelit said...

Dowd is a size queen bedeviled by the Irish curse. That’s what’s running beneath her prose.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Putin requires the correct pronouns? KGB don't care.

BUMBLE BEE said...

For clarity... https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498078100780990468.html

Lucien said...

Can I just say I really like “height supremacists” as a phrase. Even better than adding “gate” onto the nd of everything.

tim in vermont said...

Remember "Pepin the Short"? Putin wants to be Charlemagne, but instead he ends up "Putin the Short."

rcocean said...

Joe Stalin and Lenin were shorties.
Somehow that never gets mentioned.
Mao was a pretty big guy though.

Hitler was average height
Castro was a pitcher, I assume he was tall.
Mussolini was powerfully built.


rcocean said...

Frank Sinatra was of slight

You see Sinatra when he was young and you wonder how he kept the wind from blowing him off his feet.

Skeptical Voter said...

I'm not a "height supremacist". At 6' 5" I'm simply a person of altitude. But I have seen the Short Man's Disease at work. It is real.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

Funny how Gadfly calls us to remember something that didn't happen as evidenced by the sworn testimonies of the particular participants (a Trump "campaign" to blackmail Ukraine), and forgets the fact that Trump sent lethal aid to Ukraine - lethal aid that Obama promised and did not deliver.

So, pretty much par for the course for the Chinese troll bot who reads only leftist propaganda.

30yearProf said...

Height is useful. Brains are essential.

And unless you are trying to kill a mastodon with a cow's femer, brains always wins. This is especially true in the gunpowder-computer age.

30yearProf said...

What many mischaracterize as "short man's disease" is just a person beneath you demanding equal treatment at the soda fountain.

I have been called a jerk many times because I will not accept bring pushed aside. The view may be different from up there but the rights are not.

DEEBEE said...

He does not need to be tall like the stalking, hair smelling, body snatcher in the White House

Bilwick said...

Inga's back! Syllogisms take cover! Your arch-enemy has returned!