The Morning File’s research team was watching last week’s Democratic primary debate between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, prepared to analyze the approaches to immigration, global warming and plagiarism (the same friendly, almost ethical version of it that The Morning File specializes in) when actual news broke out. Obama, scrawling smudged notes with his wrong hand, showing all of America (or at least the 3 percent glued to CNN at that moment) his gauche, sinister love of the left. He shows up on some lists of left-handed presidents but not others, meaning we’ve had between five and seven of them, with much more likelihood of a left-handed White House in recent decades than before. The club’s Web site says the Bible contains more than 100 favorable references to the right hand and 25 unfavorable references to the left hand. One study of college undergraduates years ago found 20 percent of students enrolled in art programs were left-handed, compared with 7 percent of those in other fields. Researchers have been working to identify specific genes involved in handedness, as it’s generally viewed as something determined in the womb — not from stepping up to home plate for the first time, and realizing you’re a step closer to first base if you bat lefty. read more

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