I’d heard that John McCain is superstitious, but I had no idea it was this important to him.
Don’t try to pass a salt shaker to John McCain. He won’t take it from your hand because it’s bad luck.
The Arizona senator also won’t throw a hat on a bed — it means death will soon visit the household — but he regularly carries 31 cents in lucky change in his pocket. […]
Mr. McCain has dozens of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch. He carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass and a lucky penny — not to mention a lucky nickel and a lucky quarter.
He almost picked up a lucky dime in January. As he was preparing for a debate at the Reagan presidential library, he noticed a shiny dime on the stage floor. He stopped to pick it up, but quickly walked away — because if a coin isn’t heads up, he considers it unlucky.
McCain even has a laminated four-leaf clover that he carries in his wallet.
“Am I superstitious? I’m that,” McCain said. “But I don’t think I’m alone there.”
No, I suppose not. I have a reflexive aversion to superstition, but I realize most people pick up certain habits and routines they consider to be “good luck.” Maybe it’s a lucky tie or lucky numbers, but I get the sense that the vast majority have at least some kind of superstition in their life.
But doesn’t McCain sound a little nutty about it?
There was also this Dana Milbank item in the WaPo way back in February 2000.
If John McCain wins today’s South Carolina primary, some will credit his tax plan, while others will point to his war record. Those in the know, however, will attribute victory to the Spring Hill Lizard.
The reptile, believed to have mysterious powers, is the property of one Lanny Wiles, McCain’s trip director. Wiles used it to help Texas A&M beat Nebraska, and to force a golfing opponent to miss a $100 putt. He employs the lizard (which isn’t a lizard at all but a certain spell cast by wiggling the right pinkie) only on rare occasions, such as today. “We use it only if we’re at Def Con One,” says John Weaver, McCain’s political director and occasional witch doctor.
This isn’t the first campaign to honor strange superstitions. During Bill Clinton’s 1992 run, James Carville was known to wear the same underwear for days at a time when things were going well. But this time, there’s a new twist: The candidate himself is the leading shaman. He keeps on his person a lucky compass, a lucky feather, a lucky penny and, at times, a lucky rock. He assigns Weaver to carry his lucky pen — a Zebra Jimnie Gel Rollerball (medium, blue) — at all times. For added luck, he wears his magical L.L. Bean rubber-soled dress shoes.
“I’m wearing my lucky shoes from today till Sunday,” McCain says from his bus on Wednesday. At the moment, his pockets contain the compass, feather (from a tribal leader) and penny (flattened, in his wallet). When McCain once misplaced his feather, there was momentary panic in the campaign, until his wife found it in one of his suits. When the compass went missing once, McCain assigned his political director to hunt it down. Weaver found it, and it remains safe, knock wood.
I have no sense of how the typical person is going to perceive this, but I find it kind of odd.
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Sadly, most people DO have superstition in their life. It’s called religion.
Fucking great.
I smell “higher power” again.
Tom @ 1:
I was about to post the same comment. I guess we think alike Tom.
(is that lucky? …snark)
I consider it creepy. In an age when science, particularly the possible results of nuclear science can result in the elimination of mankind, I want someone in the Presidency talented with a high capacity for reasoning. I don’t care whether they can bowl, drink boilermakers, or carry “lucky feathers”. There are thousands of dead heroes throughout history who also carried their “lucky” charms. Give me logic and reason any day.
He crashed several planes in the service. Each time he was wearing his uniform. I’m amazed that a superstitious person like him never picked up on that connection.
It doesn’t matter….this is the kind of folksy, regular-joe distraction that will take plenty of air time away from his major flaws.
My only good luck ritual is stop burning oil before the ice caps permanently melt. After that, I will worry about feathers and lucky dimes.
Hmmm…well, in addition to whatever else ails him, it sounds like ol’ McInsane has a touch of OCD as well.
I wouldn’t touch it politically though. His 29%er base lives, breathes, and craps superstition as their worldview, and even the garden-variety soccer moms will probably find it endearing.
I just find it another reason to be frightened of him.
Maybe Hillary or Obama should take a black cat with them if they should debate McCain. I am sure a cat flung in his direction with claws extended would certainly rattle his superstitious cage. If not it would certainly be entertaining to see him battle with a cat instead of that de-clawed cougar he swings with.
It’s a neo-con trick, to throw a thousand turds on the wall, to see which ones will stick.
I think you’re reaching.
biff diggerence @ 2:
I think thats Cindy McCains feet.
I’m surprised the religious right hasn’t noticed McCain’s lack of faith and practice of black magic… Maybe somebody should notify them. Those with true faith in God would never turn to charms, idolatry, and God-forbid, magical spells for protection. No, I think it’s clear that McCain is a pagan practitioner of Satanic rites, a servant of the Devil, a warlock, a wizard, a magician and a flip-flopping hypocrite whose wife is financing his campaign.
I think the Religous Right needs to split with the Republican Party and run their own ticket this fall. Huckabee/Romney, anyone?
Hey, did you hear that McCain is going green?
- He’s switching to cloth diapers.
THIS is newsworthy?
Why not discuss how superstition and belief in barefooted hippies in the sky rule Mr. Obama’s life? Isn’t that pretty scary as well? Or is being a “christian” less creepy?
The only people who should laugh at this McCain oddity are those who have evolved enough to know that there is no GAWD or LAWD or “Spirit” dangling from the clouds.
no….he’s not alone there….99% of his cabinet will likely have the same issues. they’ll all be too busy avoiding cracks in the sidewalk and picking up lucky pennies to do your business, America…that’s a comfort…maybe they’ll be too busy with that to push any buttons…if you know what i mean.
Someone in my family was a fighter pilot in the USAF. To hear him tell it, there wasn’t a superstitious Air Force pilot in the bunch. In the Air Force, it was the mission plus and “what the hell have they got us doing this time, Sir” attitude. Air Force pilots always joked about the Navy never washing their aircraft and you could always know where a Navy plane had been parked by the puddle of leaked hydraulic fluid left on the tarmac. Also, something about if Navy aircraft couldn’t be fixed, the aircraft would be offered to the National Guard or thrown overboard, which ever was the most expedient.
I personally don’t know about Navy pilots’ superstitions, but I suppose it’s a sailor thing. You know, sea monsters and mermaids.
Well, I guess if I believed in “lucky” things I might not see much to this. However any human being who needs that many things on his or her person at all times to feel secure, I think has some serious problems.
Luck? That’s what you claim when you feel you have no control over a given situation, so you attribute the outcome to “good luck” or “bad luck”. It would seem to me that McCain feels he has no control over a lot, if not all, daily situations. That’s not a good sign.
In a time of crisis, is a president McCain going to sit idle until he can find his lucky feather?
Every time he sees a bad idea, he picks it up, too.
ok, #1. Do you need to look this hard to see that McCain is a wack-a-doodle? and, #2. I would make it a point to hire someone to be placing coins and other objects in his path until he snaps in public.
I thought it was just a form of OCD.
It seems back in the olden daze superstition was used as an excuse for one of many odd behavioral traits.
Who knows?
Superstition is a burden on the Superstitious. It defies all logic and common sense……and yet here it is once again about to be imposed upon the American People as it has for the last 7+ years.
Several years ago I stopped being superstitious when I stopped believing that a higher authority controlled every thought or deed or action that I performed in the course of a day,week,month…….etc.
Superstition causes seemingly normal people to make catastrophic decisions based on false logic.
If anyone here is superstitious check this link:
http://www.theskepticsguide.or.....lacies.asp
And if you are John McCain, you will find #6 enlightening.
It isn’t the fact that McCain is superstitious that concerns me. Its the fact that his whole life seems to revolve around it. I mean, just look at how many superstitions he subscribes to. He has many and to me that sounds like something you might find with a compulsive gambler. Because of this, McCain will be more than likely to gamble with American lives in my opinion simply because he has his lucky rabbits foot or a coin was found sitting a certain way.
sundog @ 16:
It’s much simpler than that. There’s about a hair’s width difference between the Navy and pirates. Navies have a long and glorious tradition of shanghaing civilians to be their unwilling crews, and general drunkenness and whoremongering. That’s my gang, I’m ex-Navy. We do tend to be a more disreputable lot, it’s true.
The Air Force, (or Chair Force, as my Marine son says they are now known as), is the newest force and tended to derive from a more elite, well educated group. Daredevils and hot-shot pilots, yes, but drunken whoremongers? Not if they want to keep flying.
Think about it, there is no Air Force equivelant to the song, “What shall we do with a drunken sailor?” If you want to party, we’re your gang. If you want to land safely, find an Air Force pilot.
Joe O. @ 22:
Great point and comment!
“…doesn’t McCain sound a little nutty about it?”
He sounds like he has obsessive/compulsive disorder. Just what we need: another disfunctional President.
I can just picture him after losing the election, breaking his teeth trying to bite his coins in half.
Hitler was also very superstitious.
roooth @ 23:
As a former squid myself, I almost totally agree. Tailhook really changed the face and feel of the Navy. You wouldn’t even recognize WestPac anymore. In many ways, that’s a good thing but in some ways, it’s really sad. I never even got to flog a wog. Those days ended shortly after I crossed the line. And now, the kids have to be off the streets by midnight.
But, it’s nice to see another Sailor onboard C&L. Ahoy shipmate.
Colbert had some fun with this last week.
They’re after me Lucky Charms!
medication, and this guy does not need to lead
“Mr. McCain has dozens of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch.”
So, how’d that all work out for him…?
Joe O. @ 22:
Obama carries around his superstitious article as well. It’s equally ridiculous and based on folklore and suspension of belief in reality. It’s caused wars. And it rules HIS world as well.
It’s called the bible.
It sounds more like an OCD to me, and very familiar to the things I used to do before I was able to control myself.
Mayhap it came from his time in captivity.
Superstition ain’t the way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9GKtmeDybI
#13 Ohio Proud - I’m roflamao!!! Love that comment!
Does McCain also carry around a “magic wand” to make all his problems disappear? Hmm, probably not, Cindy is still hanging around.
Seriously, one little rabbit’s foot or something like that, I could see, but numerous talismans (talismen?) is creepy and ignorant.
I’ve known some deeply superstitious people. Eventually, they become so annoying that you just want to slam them around. Dude… don’t make me shove this salt shaker up your ass!
Quite personally, I find the idea of someone picking up coins less weird than someone believing a cracker has transsubstantiated into human flesh - then eating it.
I do like the idea of putting coins on the ground (heads up, mainly) and having salt shakers passed to Mr. McCain, ladders leaned against walls and black cats walking around when he is on camera.
Check this out!
Looks as if Leno was caught by surprise on this one………priceless!
http://www.jibjab.com/view/195281
Is it nutty?
Nope… obviously you haven’t been around very many baseball players (high school, college and up). Those guys take superstitions to a whole new level.
I like to rub my penis for luck.
weird than someone believing a cracker has transsubstantiated into human flesh - then eating it.
I thought us white guys were already made of flesh.
Too bad he dosn’t carry a “lucky” Brain or Conscience….. He could sure use them!
Well, I guess it’s okay if stuff like that keeps you out of the Hanoi Hilton, oh, wait just a second…
Great, he’s fucking Nikolai Tesla.
Laure @ 38:
You can’t overlook the blood into wine transformation.
Even as a symbolic metaphor that stuff is way out there.
I guess I’m not superstitious. Several times, I’ve found bills stuck to the hot pavement in parking lots, covered in black dirt from being run over by cars and sweepers.
I didn’t care if they were heads or tails, I peeled them up and kept them.
miss skeptic @ 36:
If he does have a magic wand… Bush needs it. He keeps looking for one.