Obama and McCain: it turns out they’re both lefties
It’s an odd fact that in recent decades a startling proportion of Presidents have been left-handed, and no one really has a clue why, although guesses abound. The list includes Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II—as well as our next President, whomever he might be, because both McCain and Obama are southpaws. Even more surprising, in 1992 all three major candidates—Bush I, Clinton, and Ross Perot—were left-handed.
Since roughly 10% of Americans are presently left-handed, this is way more than would be expected by chance. And, unlike professions in which the advantages of being left-handed are evident, such as baseball, the reasons lefties seem favored in Presidential politics are murky. Until Truman, there was only one lefty among our Presidents, but that’s probably because until recent times lefthandedness was so frowned upon that lefties were switched.
My own mother was among those switched left-handers, a fact about which she bitterly complained because the experience was so highly traumatic. She has suffered from left-right confusion her entire life, perhaps as a result. But I wonder whether her relatively good recovery from her stroke is also at least partly a consequence of being switched, because it is likely that her brain is also more plastic because of it, and that more of her functions are located on both sides of the brain than is usual.
I am strongly left-handed myself (a phenonmenon I wrote about here), and I’ve always had a perception that lefties are more creative, quirkier, and more apt to think outside the box. In some ways both candidates fit that description this year. Ross Perot fit it so well that he’s practically balmy—although I most definitely don’t think of either Ford or Bush I as falling into those categories.
A bend sinister as in
“(Heraldry) Situated on or being the side of a shield on the wearer’s left and the observer’s right.”
You are correct about your mother’s stroke recovery. My wife is a speech pathologist in a clinical setting, working with patients presenting with stroke, TBI, etc. Several years ago she mentioned to me that lefties can recover certain functions quicker (depending on location of the injury, ofc) than righties.
This inspired me to use my left hand more often in everyday life, just simple things like brushing my teeth, using keys and tools, eating, using the mouse, etc. I don’t know that I’m any more creative or anything as a result, but I will admit it’s nice to actually get some use out of my once-gimped left hand.
As I (another southpaw) commonly say, “Everyone is born right-handed, but the gifted overcome it.”
another disproportional thing in politics is hair color. the number of leaders who have red hair is actually amazing.
how many of the founding fathers of the USA were redheads? lenin & trotsky… malcom X… How much of the royal families? Cleopatra, napoleon, Alexander the great..
seems like red hair and conquering the world go together.
though in times less modern. in modern times thanks to advertixing red headed men are seen to be effeminate, and red headed women are seen to be masculine.
the change can be seen in movies where the old films attempted to be more historically correct, while modern filmes re-colored the hair of past heroes to fit. most dont realize that christopher columbus was a red head, as was isabella of spain, both usually casted with black hair today as is napoleon.
less than 4% of the worlds population are red heads!
A 2002 study found that redhead are harder to sedate than any other people requiring twenty percent more anesthesia. Inadequate doses cause people to wake up during surgery and have increased recall of procedures.
The first human redheads walked this earth about 50,000 years ago in Africa and then spread throughout Northern Europe.
The country name of Russia means “land of reds” in honor of a redheaded Viking by the name of Rurik.
traitors are often depicted as red heads… (so lilith and judas are often painted with red hair).
Adams first wife Lilith, always depicted as a redhead, is known to have refused to lie beneath Adam during sexual intercourse, and stated” why should I lie beneath you when I am your equal since both of us were created from dust” —Patai
At St. Paul’s cathedral in London, figurines tell the story of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Adam points one hand to the forbidden fruit and the other to a golden haired Eve. Then the arch angel drives them from the garden. Adam with his fig leaf loops his arm around Eve who is now cowering and sporting a main of long red hair.
Eves’ red hair is seen as the stain of sin like the original scarlet letter. Later her son, Cain, will bare the red hair and also a fall from grace.
when i walk sometimes past old columbian women, they cross themselves and you can hear them say in spanish things against the devil. 🙂
The first redheaded British monarch was a woman. Boudicca was a Celtic warrior was led her people, the Icenti, against the Romans in the C.E. 60’s.
Belief that redheads are witches is a folk belief in Germanic culture. From 1483-1784 thousands of suspected witches were nearly always stripped and searched for “marks of the devil”. These included any “abnormality” such as freckles, moles, warts, and birthmarks. Red hair was certainly considered an abnormality. Considering the freckle factor for redheads this was a deadly and shocking horror. Somewhere around 45,000 women were tortured and murdered usually by burning at the stake or by drowning.
The Egyptians regarded the color as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint- Claudie De Lys.
An Irish judge in 2001 fined a man for disorderly conduct stating “I am a firm believer that hair coloring has an effect on temper and your coloring suggests you have a temper.” [the source fo the redheads are angry myth]
“Ill beat you like a redheaded stepchild”. This phrase was born out of the American south and implies the status of illegitimate offspring with a white master
Russian tradition declares that red hair is both a sign that a person holds a fiery temper and craziness.
A Russian Proverb warns “There was never a saint with red hair.”
Folklore in Liverpool states that meeting a redhead at the beginning of a journey is a terrible luck and bad omen. If you came upon one while still on dock or aboard the ship, you are smart to return home.
In English and Scottish tradition when the New Year arrives, your “first caller” will bring you luck. Brunettes bring the best luck. Blondes bring no luck at all. A widower brings bad luck. A redhead brings the worst luck. This “first footing” custom was so strongly practiced at one time that some homes would hire first callers.
ah but back to rulers… elizabeth I was also a redhead… sarah furgesson… henry VIII, mary queen of scots, and more.
dont forget that there are also a lot in the arts and sciences too…
ALL disproportionately represented…
🙂
just looking and i nearly forgot oliver cromwell, general custer, nell gwynne, emily dickenson, jane digby, Lady Emily Hamilton, EMPEROR NERO, marshall ney, florence nightingale, Rob Roy, margrete sanger, svetlana stalin, salome, red adair, john glenn, Leon Trotsky…
and the following US presidents… maybe having a bit to do with left hands? i am right handed…
Martin Van Buren
Calvin Coolidge
Dwight Eisenhower
Ulysses S. Grant
Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
George Washington
in england
Boadicea
Elizabeth I
Ann Boleyn
King David
Sarah Ferguson
Prince Harry
Henry II
Henry VIII
Mary Queen of Scots
Lady Sarah McCorquodale
Queen Victoria
William the Conqueror
enjoy!!!
Well, my (small) engineering school class was more than half left-handed.
Having a Father and Son who are lefties, I’m not entirely sure about the creative bit, however, I suspect that being lefty in a right handed world forces your brain to be more symmetric, and to get exercise working over problems that righties do almost instinctively. I doubt it’s the left handedness per se that’s the important thing, it’s being the minority. Sort of like being conservative in college makes you a better debater.
Oh, and for curious facts about handedness and Presidents: Garfield could write with both hands, Latin from one, and Greek from the other simultaneously, it is said.
Great post, neo. You can always tell you’re onto something when you evoke so much meaty commentary.
Douglas: I totally love your “Sort of like being conservative in college makes you a better debater.” As I blogged a couple of years back in my post Bloggers are “cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open”:
“Leftists have become soft and flabby in their thinking over the last 20, 30 or more years because their fellow travelers in the mainstream media — supposed to be keeping them honest — have been giving them a free ride, even as thinkers of the right, not enjoying such reflexive support, have been honing our debating and intellectual survival skills. That leaves the left soft and lazy and the right battle ready. Enter the bloggers, stage right.”
Does that make right-handed bloggers of the right side of the aisle honorary lefties?
“A bend sinister as in
‘(Heraldry) Situated on or being the side of a shield on the wearer’s left and the observer’s right.’”
VDL, I’m sure you know what a bend sinister originally meant in heraldry (hint for those who don’t: it wasn’t left-handedness;-).
As far as history goes, let’s not forget the Old Testament story of Ehud, the left-handed killer of the King of Moab, who was able pull a dagger without the king suspecting foul play, because he used his left hand. I guess everyone was expected to be right-handed back then.
As a lefty myself, I’ve always had some things come very easily to me that my acquaintances really had to work at. Languages, for instance. I tend to pick them up very quickly and retain them over long periods. Numbers and computations as well. But the artistic creativity that some left-handers exhibit escapes me. I can effortlessly write nonfiction prose, but I stumble over writing even the simplest poem or fiction short-story.