Which U.S. Presidents Have Been Lefties?

Thursday is the official Left-Handers Day, a day created to celebrate everyone who has to buy special scissors, and spent grade school with their left hand covered in pencil rubbings: the lefties, the southpaws, the left-handers. Because most of the population is right handed, the world just isn't always cut out to suit left-handed needs. Things have always been a little tough for the southpaws among us, but despite living in a right-handed world, many lefties have become quite successful. In fact, several recent U.S. presidents are left-handed, and we've had six lefty commanders in chief.

Lefties make up only about 10 percent of the population, so with six lefty presidents, the presidential roster in the U.S. sits above the rest of the population at nearly 14 percent lefties. This is pretty impressive when you consider the seriously bad rap left-handed people have gotten throughout history. In fact, the word "sinister" and the word "left" have the same Latin root, and there was once a study that supposedly proved lefties died earlier than their right-handed counter parts. This was later proved to be untrue, and lefties have demonstrated that they're not only capable, but able to lead the U.S. government. Here is a list of all the U.S. presidents who overcame the southpaw stigma and went on to run the White House.

Barack Obama

President Obama might be the world's most famous left-hander right now. Interestingly, John McCain is also left-handed, so the two were going head to head not only on politics, but which member of their lefty community would reign supreme.

Bill Clinton

Some studies have shown that left-handers often have superior verbal skills. This might explain why president Bill Clinton, another left-handed president, was famously interested in dissecting the nuanced definition of the word "is" during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

George H.W. Bush

President George H.W. Bush, like Obama, was up against some other heavy hitting lefties during his second presidential campaign. In 1992, all three of the major candidates (Bush, Clinton, and Perot) were left-handed. Even though he lost that election to Clinton, Bush was perhaps able to sleep a little easier knowing that the White House was staying in left hands.

Ronald Reagan

This very famous president on the right, Ronald Reagan, was in fact left-handed, though he did learn to write using his right hand.

Gerald Ford

With president Gerald Ford we have yet another left-handed right winger. About his handedness, Ford was once quoted saying, "For as long as I can remember, I have been left-handed when I've been sitting down and right-handed standing up." Interesting...

Harry Truman

Good luck finding images of president Harry Truman writing with his left hand. The first of the U.S. presidents to be documented as a lefty was in fact forced to learn to work with his right hand as a child.

Images: Wikimedia Commons (2)