Exposing ‘Bootgate’
Finally, the press is doing some hard-hitting reporting about our upcoming presidential election.
Some in the media are alleging that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wears lifts in his boots. Naturally, this “scandal” has taken on the name “Bootgate.”
Why does DeSantis’ height matter? Because throughout American history, the taller presidential candidates generally defeat their shorter competitors.
Though the tallest candidate generally wins, it isn’t always the case.
George W. Bush was 2 or 3 inches shorter than Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, one of our shorter presidents at 5 feet 9½ inches, was almost 3 inches shorter than Gerald Ford.
DeSantis is 5 feet 11 inches, about the average height of U.S. presidents. In 2019, Biden’s doctor measured him at 5 feet 11.65 inches.
The immediate challenge for DeSantis is that his presidential primary opponent Donald Trump is 6 feet 3 inches — and about 45 points ahead in the polls.
When Trump’s people noticed that DeSantis prefers to wear cowboy boots, they began joking about his height, suggesting he wore thick-heeled boots because he was insecure about his height.
Then a TikTok creator created a sketch of DeSantis’ boots, which appeared to show that DeSantis is wearing special boots to make him look taller. The 9-second video went viral.
That led to Politico — who says its mission is to give us “access to reliable information” and “nonpartisan journalism” — interviewing three boot experts who provided detailed analysis to prove that DeSantis is indeed wearing boots with lifts.
By this point the story about DeSantis’ boots had become great fodder for late-night comics.
Jimmy Fallon said the reason DeSantis hates Disney is that they won’t let him ride anything.
That’s a pretty good joke — but not as silly as our news media have become.
According to Gallup’s annual Trust in Media survey, Americans’ confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately is at its lowest point since 2016, when Republicans’ trust plummeted.
In addition, in June Gallup found confidence readings in TV news and newspapers that were near their historical lows and last December it found a recordlow-tying rating of the honesty and ethics of journalists.
Goodness knows we need a robust press to uncover the truth about the people running for political office — a press that, for example, is as effective at holding politicians to account for their tax-and-spend policies as they are at investigating whether DeSantis has lifts in his boots.