It is a little-known but very interesting fact that 89% of our Presidents of the USA have been blue-eyed.
I am not aware that anyone has studied this rather amazing statistic in any depth before. Some bits of data are fascinating.
Two of the five presidents who had brown eyes were impeached, Johnson and Nixon. Two of the three presidents who have been impeached have had brown eyes. Other than Nixon, all recent presidents have had blue, grey, or hazel eyes, despite that they make up only 1/6th of the population. Prior to 1900, approximately half our population had pale eyes. One would have predicted that one-half of the presidents prior to 1900 would have had brown eyes, but no, they were almost all blue-eyed.-
Some have posited that television has favored blue-eyed people. There has been some favoring of blue-eyed actors and actresses, it would seem. Prior to the era of television, however, a relatively few citizens had ever even seen the candidates except in photographs, and before that in drawings. The black-and-white campaign posters wouldn't have especially revealed eye color.
But if blue eyes are a trait of presidents, why would that be? Are there any specific mental or personality traits characteristic of blue-eyed people that are not found in brown-eyed folk?
About 35 or 40 years ago, I was listening to a group of sportscasters and football coaches discuss various positions, and someone made the observation that quarterbacks and linebackers almost invariably were blue-eyed while running backs,cornerbacks, and safeties were brown-eyed. One coach had an interesting theory. He said that the essence of cornerback and safety play was instantaneous reaction, while a little-appreciated requisite for quarterbacks and linebackers was the ability to wait. The ability to wait, to allow a situation to develop sufficiently so as to permit a correct decision to be made. That made sense to me.
Are blue or grey or hazel eyes associated with an ability to wait in more than sports? Is one essential trait of a president the ability to wait?
