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.