Cackle it up, fellow left-handers, because we did it!  We got a lefty back into the White House!  Of course, no matter how it had gone down on November 4th, we would have done it, because both Barack Obama and John McCain are left-handed, according to the Washington Post.

Roughly half of the last twelve presidents have been left handed. Amongst that group are Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Harry Truman.  Before World War II, the only known lefties are James Garfield and possibly Herbert Hoover.  This is because in the 18th century being left-handed was seen as sinful and youngsters were often forced to be right-handed.  Even Ronald Reagan, though considered left-handed, wrote with his right hand, and may have received the same instruction.

Left-handed isn’t all the particularly common in the population - only 10-15% of people have it, so the number of presidents who’ve been lefties are disproportionate.  For example, all three major candidates in the 1992 election were left-handed.

So why the vast left-handed conspiracy to dominate the political world?  How the brain works may have something to do with it:

For nearly all right-handers, language abilities reside exclusively on one side of the brain — usually the left, which controls the right hand. But one in seven lefties process language on both sides of the brain, possibly because using their left hands during childhood stimulated the development of the right half. So Reagan, Bill Clinton and Obama may have left-handedness to thank for their legendary speaking abilities.

The benefits of being a lefty aren’t only verbal. Many artists and great political thinkers were lefties — Pablo Picasso and Benjamin Franklin, for example. Lefties are overrepresented among the mathematically talented and are also more likely to find unexpected or counterintuitive solutions on problem-solving tests.

I’m not entirely sure about the second paragraph because, while I did well above average on the verbal part of my SATs and verbal-related classes throughout school, my math scores were fairly low, and math was never a strong suit for me.  I did pretty poorly for most of my time in school.  It actually only “clicked” when I got into pre-calculus.  Maybe you don’t have to be good in both.  (Though, while this has never been medically verified for me, just under my own observation, many skills seem to have “clicked” later for me than a lot of kids my age.  I was premature by weight, so that may have something to do with it.)

But, whatever the case, it is good to know that America is again led by a leftie.  Now we can go back to planning the oppression of the righties!  Or are you supposed to know about that?  Hmm…