Which Presidents Were Left Handed? NO Donald Trump is not among
Them !
President Elect Biden is Right Handed Too !
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body
and visa versa. The autonomic nervous system is lateralized in
top-down neural control of physiology, with the parasympathetic
roots in the left hemisphere and the sympathetic in the right. Our
alignment upon this axis is what most predisposes us to handedness,
and explains some regular physical and personality differences seen
between extremes. Ambidex is where you want to be. It takes two
snakes climbing to raise the emergent third. Understand that most
left-handers are ambidexes showing off to the twisted masses. True
left-handers don’t function very well in this society.
Thomas Jefferson was know to be able to write
simultaneously with both hands IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES! That should
certainly count as ambidextrous!
Determining exactly which presidents were left handed is a
difficult task because during the 18th and 19th century (and even
early 20th century), left-handedness was considered a disability.
Parents and teachers fought to eradicate any signs of
left-handedness in their children and students, and the “condition”
rarely lasted beyond childhood.
Therefore, if any presidents were left-handed before the 20th
century, we may never know because they may have been forced to
give up their natural instincts at a young age.
Examining the presidents that were left-handed reveals
interesting connections between being a leftie and becoming
president. Advertisement Left-handed Presidents
Although determining which presidents were left-handed before
the 20th century is a difficult task, there are at least six
presidents that we know of that were left-handed. James
Garfield
There are reasons to believe that James Garfield was
left-handed. Popular stories have it that he could write Latin with
his right hand and Greek with his left hand at the same time.
Therefore, as far as records are able to tell, James Garfield
was the first left-handed president of the United States.
Unfortunately, in addition to being one of the minority of
left-handed presidents, Garfield was also one of the four
presidents who was assassinated. He served just four months in 1881
before he was shot, and died two months later from his wounds.
Herbert Hoover
The next president that was thought to be left-handed was
Herbert Hoover, who served from 1929-1933. Most known for his
efforts to relieve the country of the problems of the Great
Depression, Hoover, in fact, failed in his attempts to aid the
United States and wound up losing the 1932 election as a result.
Gerald Ford
Serving from 1974 to 1977, Ford was the first person to serve as
both vice president and president, but to not be elected into
either of those positions. He became vice president under the terms
of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and then become president
when Richard Nixon resigned. Although considered a leftie, Ford did
say, “For as long as I can remember, I have been left-handed when
I’ve been sitting down and right-handed standing up.” Advertisement
George H.W. Bush
The elder Bush is perhaps best remembered for his foreign policy
during his time in office from 1989-1993. He oversaw military
activity in both Panama and the Persian Gulf, and he saw both the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall. Bush Senior is
also the last president to have been a veteran of World War II.
Bill Clinton
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Defeating Bush in the 1992 election, some may think that Clinton
will only be remembered for the infamous sex scandal or his
impeachment that was eventually acquitted. However, when Clinton
left office in 2001, he received an approval rating of 66%, which
was the highest rating of any president since World War II.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama is a proud leftie. Signing the inaugural documents
on January 20 2009, he joked, “That’s right, I’m a lefty, get used
to it!” During his time as president, he signed both the American
Recovery and Reinstatement Act and the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act. He was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate on October 8, 2009.
Presidents Who Were Ambidextrous
At least three presidents have been “ambidextrous,” meaning they
can use both hands to write. Although often claimed as left-handed,
technically James Garfield is one of them. The other two are Harry
S. Truman and Ronald Reagan. Truman and Reagan were reported to be
totally left handed, but were forced at an early age to switch,
quite possibly because of the old-fashioned beliefs that
left-handedness was a disability. Advertisement Notable Trends
Notice anything interesting about the above list? While tracing
the left-handedness of presidents before the 20th century is rather
difficult, in recent years an overwhelming number of the country’s
leaders have been lefties.
Of the country’s last 14 presidents, seven have been either
left-handed or ambidextrous. Estimates for the number of
left-handed people in the world range from 10-12%. Therefore the
number of presidents who were lefties is well above the norm.
According to geneticist Amar Klar, Ph.D., at the
National Cancer Institute who studied the issue, many Nobel Prize
winners, artists, and writers are left-handed, thereby indicating
that lefties may have a broader ability of creative thought. Klar
states that people who are either ambidextrous or left-handed are
generally able to engage in more intense and complicated
thought.
Even more interesting is that Truman, Ford, HW Bush, Clinton,
and Obama, were all firstborn lefties. In Truman’s case, he was
also an only child. As a first born lefty, I have done an
unofficial study [reviewing famous lefties and sports lefties,
since those records are public] to discover that more than 50% of
lefties are first born. I also ask every lefty I meet if they are
first born. The actual percentage of first born lefties may be
higher than fifty per cent. Interesting that only an estimated 3%
to 15% of us are left handed. And yet so many are first born. Lots
of possible reasons for that. But not here.