Left Handed Presidents – Dale’s Daily Data

All of us on the Breakfast Club are right handed. Not unusual because about 90 percent of people are. But what is unusual is that five of the last seven presidents have been left-handed - Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. A total of eight presidents have been lefties.

Historians agree that James Garfield and Harry Truman were left-handed. Some lists also include Herbert Hoover.

And then there's the case of Ronald Reagan. He wrote with his right hand, but he had a natural tendency to use his left hand. In the movie “The Killers”, he slapped Angie Dickinson with his left hand. Some people think strict schoolteachers forced him to write with his right hand.

In the 1992 Presidential election – all 3 of the major candidates were lefties – Clinton, Bush and Ross Perot.

There’s an International Left-Handers Day, it's in August and there's a Left Handers Club with a website lefthanders.com that has all kinds of articles, facts and even products geared to lefties like scissors, can openers, even mugs.

Lefties are dominated by the right side of the brain, the side that’s more associated with artistic function and one study found that as many as 25 percent of students enrolled in college music, art and architecture programs were lefties.

Filed Under: presidents

Categories: Arts & Culture