On Your Mark. Get Set . . .

Running.

Ready or not.

Here's his announcement -- direct to video on his own website, on a first-name basis.

On CNN, I just saw a clip of him at a book-signing, and he's left-handed.  Follow that link for some serious fun about the really mattering minority Obama belongs to.  Among other things:

The word left still has negative connotations. [...35 years ago] a group of college freshmen and sophomores were asked their subjective feelings about the words left and right. Left was represented by bad, dark, profane, female, night, west, unclean, curved, limp, homosexual, weak, mysterious, low, ugly, incorrect, death. Right was thought to be good, right, saved, male, clean, day, east, straight, erect, strong, heterosexual, commonplace, high, beautiful, correct, life. [ ... ]

The Incas thought that to be left-handed was lucky, and one of their great chiefs was Lloque Yupan Qui, which translates as left-handed. [...]

I personally take exception to a recently issued translation of the Bible which, in the spirit of political correctness, no longer states that Christ sits at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19) but that he sits at the mighty hand of God—thereby keeping the left-handed from being slighted! [...]

In 1969, neurosurgeon Joseph Bogan stated that “right-handers are a bunch of chocolate soldiers. If you've seen one you've seen them all. But left-handers are something else again.” [...]

Whatever their personality quirks, it is significant that left-handers are twice as likely to qualify for membership in Mensa, and when NASA needed imaginative, reliable, multitalented astronauts to explore the moon, it turned out that 1 out of every 4 of the Apollo astronauts was left-handed.

Trivia question:  how many southpaw presidents have we had?  Here's the answer, and it's surprising.  Not the number -- it's in line with the statistical incidence in the general public -- but who they were.  Guess which one was forced to convert from left to right in childhood -- heh.  Another wrote left but played sports right.  Also from that cool link.

Comments

[Mark Daniels]

I haven't looked at the site that lists southpaw Presidents yet. But as I recall, the list is a short one...Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Garfield, I think, was ambidexterous, even able to write in Greek with one hand and Latin with the other simultaneously.

I still think Obama isn't ready. But given that a Democrat will be the presumptive and prohibitive favorite in the 2008 race and people will be looking for a new face, I think her has certain advantages both within the nominating process and in a general election that year.

Thanks for re-linking.

Mark

[Mark Daniels]

That's a bigger list of southpaws than I realized.

Mark

[wj]

How much of the political venom in this country, do you suppose, stems from the fact that some people simply cannot distinguish between "right," as in right and left, and "right" as in right and wrong? (Of course, some people cannot even make the leap between "right" and "write"!)

For more on how the language we speak molds our thoughts, check out Benjamin Whorf's "Language, Thought, and Reality." Written in the mid-1950s, and still critical to understanding the people and world around us today.

[amba]

That book had a huge influence on me. Perhaps the single revelation that stays with me most was that preliterate people like the Hopi distinguished in their grammar between "I know that" as in "I saw it with my own eyes" and "I know that" as in hearsay. It was a distinction so important it was built into the very structure of their language, and it's one we've almost completely lost -- we think we "know" something if we read it in the New York Times or saw it on CNN -- though it survives in the judicial system, and I once met a semi-illiterate minor gangster who was always careful to make that distinction in his speech.

[Icepick]

2008 presidential politics? Zzzzzzz. Wake me when it's 2008, please, and not a moment before then.

[m. takhallus]

Ice:

Oh, come on, don't spoil my fun. Permananent elections! Yay!

[Icepick]

Tak, even making that comment facetiously indicates that you are a deeply disturbed individual.

It wouldn't be so bad if every election cycle that I remember (going back to 1984) didn't result in our having to choose from worse candidates than the previous cycle, therefore leading to increasingly bad 'leaders' running the country.

Consider this run: Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II (and perhaps Clinton II).

Or this: Tip O'neil, Foley, Gingrinch, Hastert/Delay, Pelosi. (A slight uptick from Foley to Gingrinch, but not by much. And a slight uptick to Pelosi, but only because of the Botox.)

Even the Presidential losers have been diminishing in quality: Mondale, Dukakis, Bush, Dole, Gore, Kerry. (And a slight uptick from Dukakis to Bush.)

I swear, it's turtles all the way down!

This is like that scene in Office Space where Peter states that every day is a little worse than the day before it. Therefore every time you meet him, he is having the worst day of his life.

I say, let's amend the constitution so that we hold one more election in 2008, and those people will serve for life. Elections will only be held upon the death of an office holder, and no resignations will be allowed! You ran for it, you're stuck with it, sucker. At least this way we can slow the downward spiral. Plus, maybe the dumbasses that get elected will actually be confident enough to say and do what they think is right, and even, perhaps maybe, just as a most remote of possibilities, learn from experience.

...

I guess that the belief that these guys might learn from experience indicates that I'm deeply disturbed as well....

[amba]

L O L !! Ice, you are in top form today.

[david]

Obama will be VP on the winner's ticket, unless his drug use and land deals with a Chicago pol currently under indictment get too much play.

[Pastor_Jeff]

"The decisions made these last six years have put our country in a precarious place"

"Our leaders seem incapable of working together in practical, common-sense ways. Politics has become so bitter and partisan ..."

Way to stick the knife in while deploring the ugliness of politics as usual!

Oh, he's good.

[Icepick]

L O L !! Ice, you are in top form today.

Here's the thing: I'm not joking.

[Dave Schuler]

I think david's take above is probably about right. As I noted in my post on this subject, historically we've tended not to elect sitting senators, preferring governors and former vice-presidents.

[m. takhallus]

Ice:
It's all an experiment in devolution. Despite having consistently lousy leadership the US is the world's only superpower. My theory is that if we have even worse leadership -- admittedly a challenge in 2008 -- we'll ascend to even greater heights.

[amba]

David and Dave: would the vice-presidency tarnish Obama? My hunch is no.

[Tully]

I KNEW there was SOMETHING sinister about him... ;-)

[Dave Schuler]

would the vice-presidency tarnish Obama?

Quite the contrary.

[Tom Strong]

I'll skip the politics, and just raise my glass in toast of the lefties. You guys kick ass.

[Tom Strong]

Even when you're evil.

[amba]

And, they kick ass with their left foot!

[Icepick]

And, they kick ass with their left foot!

Typical lefties, leaving the right foot to support them.

[karen]

Would it shock the crap out of everyone to know i'm a leftie (who else is here?)?
Too funny, considering MY politics. Typical, considering my life.

We DO kick A&& w/our left foots, too :0).

Amba- that sucks about the translation- what is it w/PC??

[karen]

Bill Cliton?????

Deflate me.

[Internet Ronin]

Would running for and serving as Vice President hurt Obama? No, not in the least. Is he qualified? Probably.