Think About It. Sinister Presidents. Recently a local wag wrote the Indianapolis Star asking if anyone else had noticed that both Clinton and Obama are left-handed. While not being ambidextrous, I still don’t take a hard right position on such matters. Being politically left seems to only offend those on the right. However, internationally the word left is generally used in a derogatory sense.
Henry Clay, Sr. must have been correct a lot. He ran for president three times (1824,1832 and 1844), consistently failing while insisting, “I’d rather be right than President”. I’ve always thought he meant correct, not politically conservative.
Apropos of nothing I offer this bit of personal history. Besides having cigar factories and a restaurant serving chicken and yellow rice (with actual saffron), Tampa was winter home for lot’s of “carnies”. With a school chum whose parents had a snake show and those distorting mirrors, I had lots of time to learn some tricks of the trade. One was to write Ruth upside down and backwards. I just tried and it looked great. But I never learned to do it left-handed.
Back to the subject. In France the word gauche means left and when used in English it connotes socially unacceptable conduct. On the other hand, in this country it is an honor to be known as adroit. Indeed in France it means to the right. Admittedly it has been awhile since Latin was spoken outside of mass or for casual communication. However we are fond of using sinister for something threatening. In Latin sinestra means left-handed or unlucky. 1
Slowly, the suggestion of ill-omen being associated with left has faded while awkwardness is still hinted in the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian for instance).
Just so you’re not as gauche as the sinister Star writer, you will want to know that US Presidents of all philosophical bents have faced the challenge of being left-handed in a right-handed world. Ready? Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush all signed their John Hancock with a left hand. Hancock signed with his right, but lost it to grave robbers when they couldn’t remove his valuable rings in any other manner.
We all, I suppose, have our opinions about whether “the leader of the free world” should steer our ship-of-state toward port or starboard. Personally I’ll take sailing POSH. Look it up. In the mean time, some of our Signers in Chief may be left-handed, but it doesn’t seem right for us to call them Sinister Presidents. Think About It.