We don’t yet know who the next president of the United States will be, but it is a safe bet they will be left-handed. Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both left-handed, and it turns out that a disproportionate number of American presidents have been lefties.

In the 1992 presidential race, all three of the major candidates were left-handed: Ross Perot, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Over the last century, a disproportionate number of left-handed politicians have been elected president, including Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Interestingly, current president George W. Bush is right-handed, though his Democratic opponent in the 2000 presidential race, former vice president Al Gore, is left-handed. Is there something about left-handed people that makes them inherently more qualified or adept at handling the responsibilities of high office?

Some analysts theorize that left-handed people tend to be more competent at multitasking and non-linear thinking. Lefties are known to use “visual processing” to a higher degree than their right-handed counterparts, which could assist in creative problem-solving.

It is also interesting to note that Senator Hillary Clinton, who is right-handed, recently lost the democratic nomination for president to her left-handed opponent, Senator Barack Obama. But Senator Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, is left-handed all the way — and considered by many to be one of the most adept politician’s of the modern era.

Although there is no concrete evidence that left-handed people exhibit more intelligence or social skill than others, the history of presidential politics suggests that left-handed politicians are both more likely to run for high office, and to be elected. Before current (right-handed) President George W. Bush took office, four of the last five presidents have been left-handed. This hardly seems like a coincidence.

Left-handed people make up only about 10% of the overall population, so it is certainly interesting that such a high percentage of them rise to power, especially in presidential politics.

Some historians even suggest that the majority of our nation’s founding fathers were secretly left-handed, though they tended to write with their right hand. The theory is that they were pressured to conform to the right-handed majority as children, and learned to write with their right hand in their early school years.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was not particularly socially acceptable to be left-handed. But in modern times being left-handed is considered to be something of a non-issue by most people. Perhaps this helps explain the disproportionate number of presidents, and other business and political leaders who have been “openly left-handed” over the last century.

At this point the 2008 presidental race has not been decided, but we can be sure beyond any doubt that the next president of the United States will indeed be another lefty — another “southpaw” in a very long and distinguished tradition.

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