In a media environment where no bit of campaign arcana is too small to parse -- Cindy McCain plagiarised her tuna recipe! Obama hosted a sleepover! -- it's only surprising that a story on the nominees' left-handedness has taken this long to emerge.
But indeed it has emerged, with one psychology professor proclaiming that McCain and Obama's shared southpaw status is "not an accident". Only 10% of Americans are left-handed, yet four of the last six presidents have had the unusual alignment.
Does the data mean that left-handed politicians are best-equipped to win elections? Lefties are known as more creative and quirky; are these truly the attributes Americans seek in their leaders?
Or maybe this is the question, given that only two presidents before 1974 were known lefties: did the Watergate scandal unleash an insidious epidemic in the US that has slowly driven us away from intellectual curiosity and convinced us to put blind faith in the diminished office of the president?
Nah, can't be. Hey, I wonder if Obama and McCain shop at Ned Flanders' Leftorium!
