The Vox Box

Tue., March 17, 2009

Left-Handed Presidents

When Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain took the stage for the presidential debates in November, viewers may notice both candidates scribbling notes with their left hands. Such a curiosity has occurred before: In 1992, all three contenders -- George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot -- were lefties.

6 of the 12 chief executives since the end of World War II will have been left-handed: Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bush number one, Clinton and Obama. (This is a disproportionate number, considering that only ten percent of people in the general population is left-handed.)

Question: Is it possible that right- and left-handed people -- and presidents -- think differently?

Does anyone know whether lefties are overrepresented among C.E.O.’s or world leaders outside the United States? By my calculations, left-handed presidents would be one in a thousand chance.

Posted March 17, 2009, 9:28 a.m.

In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.