Southpaw Obama leads from the left

Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th US president was not just a cause of rejoicing for African-Americans. Another minority -- lefties -- had one of their own back in the White House.

Obama joined a disproportionately high number of southpaw US leaders, and the well-documented intuition and creativity of left-handed people may be exactly what a nation in crisis needs right now.

"I'm a lefty. Get used to it," Obama quipped to photographers as he signed his first official documents a day after his historic inauguration as America's first black president Tuesday. He wasn't referring to his politics.

Left-handers comprise one in 10 of the general US population, according to scientific studies, but have occupied an outsized place in the worlds of politics, sports and the arts.

Before Obama, four of the past five presidents were lefties -- Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (who was ambidextrous), George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

In fact, the line would have extended whatever the result of November's election, as Obama's Republican rival John McCain is also a southpaw.

Examples further back are harder to find, but that may have something to do with society's traditional aversion to lefties.

Until well into the 20th century, schoolchildren in the United States and beyond risked beatings for writing with their left hands. The aversion is ancient. The English word "sinister" derives from the Latin for left.

"There are reasons to be unsurprised to see lots of southpaw presidents. Lefties are over-represented among those with high verbal abilities," Princeton University professor of neuroscience Sam Wang told AFP.

"They have been shown to be more likely to take unusual approaches to problem-solving -- in scholarly papers this is sometimes called 'divergent thinking'," he said.

Wang explained that left-handed people tend to process language with both halves of their brain, not just one, which might explain the communication skills of Obama, Clinton and Reagan.

"However, they're not a monolithic group," the scientist said. "Lefties are also over-represented among the mentally retarded."

Before the 20th century, the only known left-handed president was James Garfield, who reputedly could write in Latin with one hand and simultaneously in Greek with the other.

For all his singular talents, Garfield is best known now for how his life ended. He was assassinated, in 1881, after just four months in office.

Obama is part of a select club on the global stage, although he may look askance at some of his fellow members. Osama bin Laden is another leftie, according to his entry on the FBI's "most wanted terrorists" list.

While left-handers all too often encounter problems in a right-handed world -- with scissors, with writing desks and so on -- there are advantages for the new president, who cuts a mean leftwards shimmy on the basketball court.

And nowadays, the online world provides a forum for this particular minority to come together. There is much excited chatter among the 620-plus members of the Facebook group "Left-Handed People for Barack Obama."

Group member Matasha writes: "I'm so excited that the President is a Leftie!!!! Left-handed people are strong but thoughtful, encouraging but take charge, things you need as a President!!!"

Wang commented: "Lefties feel picked on, are considered different, and so on. They feel set apart.

"The outsider feeling is a common one among very successful scientists and artists. It's a paradox considering that they end up as leaders."