Superstition ain't the way
By Steve Benen Thursday Jun 26, 2008 1:00pmI’ve heard a lot about how superstitious John McCain is, but I’m a little surprised that he’d tell the building that houses his campaign offices to redo their elevator labels like this. (via Mark Kleiman)
For the lowdown on McCain’s economic plan, we turn to Doug Holtz-Eakin, the bearded, balding former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, now McCain’s chief economic advisor. We meet at campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., in a conference room on the M floor — M for McCain. (M is one above 12. The whole floor was renamed and relabeled by the campaign, right down to the buttons on the elevators. McCain is superstitious, his spokeswoman explained; it’s a fighter-pilot thing. But isn’t M the 13th letter in the … ? Never mind.)
I’m not sure if it’s a “fighter-pilot thing,” so much as it’s a bizarre thing.
Consider what we’ve learned about McCain’s superstitions:
* McCain believes it’s bad luck for someone to hand him a salt shaker.
* McCain believes it’s bad luck to throw a hat onto a bed.
* McCain regularly carries 31 cents in lucky change in his pocket.
* McCain carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, a lucky penny, a lucky nickel, a lucky quarter, and a laminated four-leaf clover.
* McCain believes it’s bad luck to pick up a coin if it isn’t heads up.
* McCain’s been known to have an aide carry his lucky pen at all times.
And now he’s having the elevator labels changed in his campaign’s building. I have no idea how the typical person responds to this, but I find it kind of odd.
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mcBush is going to need all the luck he can get.
The floor stuff is bizarre. That's more superstitious even than baseball players (most of all pitchers).
Um...that's not the kind of mentality we need in the WH....
Maybe there's some reason he keeps flipping his stance on issues- some sort of O/C ritual?
Reminds me of a milder version of Jack Nicholson's character in "As Good as it Gets" A little OCD.
Good Grief...he's as bad Nomar Garciaparra...the Human Rain Delay...maybe that should be McCain's new nickname.
John "HRD" McCain
No, now that I look at it, it's kinda dirty.
Nevermind.
No lucky I've fallen and I can't get up buzzer for his ailing campaign?
Well I'm not particularly superstitious, but I do think it would be bad luck for the nation to put this stupid old fart in the white house.... You tell me, superstition, critical thinking, or just common freaking sense at work on that...JD
McCain is a heavy gambler. Being extremely superstitious is a symptom of that.
Maybe one day, one day far far away, the GOP will produce someone who isn't mentally handicapped and has an apparent IQ on par with a toaster.
What is wrong with these people?!?
You mean it's not bad luck to pick up a tail's up coin?? OMG! I passed up a penny today for that very reason. Dang!
He has a bigger more more dangerous superstition....
He believes that in the 1st Century AD, a man was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures.
He actually believes in God, the Christian God, the drowning, burning, genocidal, insecticidal, judgmental, cruel, jealous God of Israel.
Now that is a dangerous superstition.
For 2000 years that superstition has killed and maimed countless indigenousness peoples all over the world and to this day marginalizes women, homosexuals, children and many more.
That's Superstition (sung to the tune of That's Entertainment)!!!!!
McLame's military record shows that chance and superstition played a large role in the events surrounding him. I mean, he lost 4 or 5 planes, right?
McCaint's covered all the bases. The US needs all the luck we can get after the BushCo slaughter. He da (old) man. /snark/
Odd? Thats fucking retarded!!
When mccain's aid holds his lucky pen upside down
Does the girl's bathing suit fall off?
There are many reasons to vote against McCain. This seems pretty petty.
To marko #12....Ouch!!
Um,
John McCain hasn't been a pilot for 40 years.
Whats it got in its' pocketses precioussssss......
Egads, he's making herr dubyah look reasonable.
Are decisions of war and peace and policy going to be main dependent upon whether this dumb freak picks up a lucky penny in the morning; or whether he remembered to throw salt over his shoulder? This is some serious psychopathology for someone who wants to occupy the Oval Office. There is no way this freak will be elected... Knock wood.
Late train leaving on track 13 ........... For the Dark Ages .....
All Aboard !!!
It's bad luck to have a mick in the WH.
My friend always said McCain was a lucky fucker. Now I know why, the guy is tooled up to the nines.
I heard he eats a 10-piece tub of Kentucky-Fried Chicken before every debate and listened to "Afternoon Delight" the morning of every primary. He also takes his lucky Geritol daily.
McGrampa will make his foreign policy decisions using a Magic 8 Ball.
We're gonna be lucky if this moron doesn't become our next Emperor.
"McCain’s been known to have an aide carry his lucky pen at all times"
Lucky gift from Bob Dole?
Pagan Pockets @ 20:
That's awesome! I always love a quality LOTRs reference. Come to think of it, McBush is starting to look more and more like Gollum.....(ancient and crazy). I'd say that his hair is looking pretty thin just like Gollum, but I don't want him calling me a c*nt.
I think it's unlucky to vote Republican....
i wonder if invading another country on false pretenses is considered bad luck? Or maybe bombing Iran - i wonder how many 4 leafed clovers one would need in their pocket to waylay that bad mojo.
HAHAHAHAHA, sounds like a baseball player!
Uh Oh...
Last night I went out to dinner wearing a baseball hat with my wife and 3 year old son. My wife handed me the salt shaker once we got our meal and said she left the cell phone in the car and had to call the baby sitter. She asked if I had any change so I dug into my pocket and and had 44 cents in change and so she had to break a dollar.
On the way out my son found a quarter in the parking lot tails up and he asked if he could keep it and I said sure. Driving home I realized we needed cash for the weekend and had to deposit a check. We drove up to a cash station and had no pens so I had to go to a 7-11 to buy a BIC.
When we got home, it was trash night and we had had just cleaned out my sons old toy chest and got rid of a bunch of garbage items, a feather, a broken compass, and some ugly laminated thing that looked like a 4 leaf clover. After I took the garbage out I came back into the house, tossed my hat on the bed and went downstairs to watch the Daily Show.
I'm foulked.
The repug he picks as his VP is the unlucky one. Can't imagine having to listen to McCain repeat over and over "I am a hero." Could get tiresome.
How's this for a new campaign themesong for mccain?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Aki-zf9Ok
I wonder if he carries garlic in his pockets?
Maybe he should become Mr. Opposite, since his luck is shit.
Loses multiple jets. Gets eviscerated by Bush's dog, Rover.
Gets divorced and marries a Stepford pillhead for money.
And Obama mops the floor with him before long.
The military has another superstition about unlucky guys. They avoid them like the plague.
These kinds of superstitious ritual do point to OCD.
McCain is a compulsive gambler, known to spend 14 to 16 hours at a time at the gaming tables. (and when he was younger, smoking cigarettes-2 packs a day- and drinking while gambling)
Add to that the compulsive womanizing when he was younger-dating (dating?) a stripper, etc.-another compulsive behavior.
So, yea, it does point to his core identity.
Jared wants to give everybody aids.
Andy @ 33:
You can get your luck back if your undo all of that stuff backwards.
Tony D @ 36:
No, he's just glad to see you.
ysbaddaden @ 41:
That would be GLANS to see you.
Room is starting to tilt ... means i have to go.
yes, but is there a 7 1/2 floor?
Well one thing is for certain. "M" turned upside down is "W". Not that I'm superstitious or anything...
ysbaddaden @ 41:
I think they are his "bearings" which Traitor Joe assured us were in tact. He checked them himself and "knows stuff".
I ain't superstituous
But as I always said
Those whom the Fates would destroy
They first make happy.
I must be the luckiest guy in the world then.
I wonder if Nancy Reagan can recommend a psychic for him.
Don't you think it's lucky for us that he won't get elected?
I know athletes at the high school and college level that have far more bizzare superstitions than that, but not quite that extensive.
Jerry @ 19:
Not only that, he wasn't a FIGHTER pilot. Looks like he's going to wear the flight suit on his sleeve like his buddy W.
Frankly, I'm surprised that someone who cracked up 5 planes would bring up the pilot thing at all. This is where a 527 should come in and throw this in his face, since Obama can't really do anything but honor his fine 'service'.
one of those things only children seem to be able to deal with. superstition, religion, bigotry. some realize it for what it is and get on with their lives. others have someone else's belief system installed in their minds by adults and are brainwashed, or worse, into a life of bizarre servitude to an emotional disorder. pretty sad that americans would consider anyone that has any of these crippling emotional and cognitive handicaps as representatives. to many of us, these issues indicate the person is unable to cope with normal life, and has serious mental issues that, one might think, disqualify them with prejudice.
Mc Idiot reminds me of captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny". Bogart did it better though.
Very psychotic.
What??? No astrologers? No Oracles? No Shaman? Well -- there is John Bolton, and Bill Kristol...and Bob the traitor Novak. But they've been wrong, time and time again, no?
Hahah. My very superstitious mom would always catch me if I threw a hat on the bed. S'kinda weird hearing this from someone running for president. Who is this guy Nikolai Tesla?
we don't need someone this fucked up to be president
we just spent 8 yrs with two sinisterly fucked up pres and vp
mcfuckhead should stay home, what will he do, have the election
rescheduled to suit his superstitions?
and not only that, he's a Christian!
oh wait, I forgot, you guys don't like it when we call your superstition a superstition.
You know what's funny is that I thought the having a hat on the bed as bad luck was an idiosyncratic quirk of Matt Dillon's character in Drugstore Cowboy. This is only the second time I heard about. I don't know about anyone else, but that seems the most inane.
OCD--with respect for all of us who have it. He may also have PTSD and the political climate in the USA does not care. He could trim his fingernails and pick up every penny he finds--after all, he will be at least 1 penny ahead the next day. Collect marbles of the same size...daily...cat's eyes or Italian...arrange his food in a very precise pattern. We'll be alright, huh?
DD @ 51:
Look up his service record on wikipedia. It's definitely more real than George's. I think, as a liberal, going after McCain on his military service actually focuses on one his strengths and would swing some voters. Why not focus on the issues ...he's weak on all of em.
You're right, he flew a bomber, not a fighter jet.
More to add to the reasons not to vote for McCain.
http://reasonsnottovoteformccain.blogspot.com
I have a feeling the list is gonna get pretty long by November
sp
As a former fighter pilot of that era - and unlike McCain - I can tell you we were no more or less superstitious, than any other cross-section of the population.
And as DD in #51 above correctly says, McCain was never a “fighter" pilot. He was an “attack” pilot. And he knows better.
Reminds me of an episode of Andy Griffith when Barney secretly carried almost everyone of these items in order to win a shooting contest or something. Dang, we got ourselves a Barney Fife!!!
Fool!
Everybody knows that luckyons can't penetrate plastic lamination!
In fact, they often decay into anti-luckyons which CAN escape.
E Pleb Neesta
PhD in Quantum Superstitionology
Plus, everyone knows it's bad luck to be superstitious.
Forgot his other superstitions:
his lucky divorce
his lucky sugar mama
The only one that is actually valid is the hat on the bed thing. I'm supersticious about that (i'm not sure why. My grandparents always told me not to, so I don't), but probably not to the extent of McBush. All the other things are just plain insane!
What, no rabbits foot?
it's only lucky if you know what you're doing.
Remember when rational thought was admired?
He can't even carry his own damn lucky pen?
pratMA @ 70:
That was before the Talibaptists took over
Megan McCains Blog,
Dad came home early super pissed at the Russians. His economic advisor was reading the campaign workers private emails like she insisted she had to and found one describing how the Russian ambassador glued a dime to floor face down. When dad spotted it and bent down picking at it, the ambassador turned and walked right into his face. The Ambassador apologized of course and said he was trying to illustrate what happens to those picking the American dollar right now.
Well he found out the hard way not to f**k with Dad’s superstitions. Says he is going to kick him out and lock the G8 behind him. And China too, they made the glue.
Try McCain is at least seriously OCD and at worst batshit crazy.
From video footage I saw on MSNBC last night, it looks like McCain may also think that it is lucky to have his big, burly, Secret Service guy pick up, open, and hold a diner menu while McCain decides what he wants to eat. I don't know if the Secret Service also holds his newspaper for McCain while he reads or if they unroll the toilet paper when it's time to go potty.
I wonder if he can only turn off the radio on a positive note or only open the door if his approach ends on his right foot. Sounds completely OCD to me.
It's odd all right, but then what could be odder than remaining a Republican in the year 2008?
McCain is a simple-minded fool who thinks that the world is magical. He's made it clear he doesn't understand how the fuck anything works. Including the economy, the Internet, and the whole thing about the law . . . that he himself helped author!
God, I hope he's not stilll wearing his lucky underwear. You know the ones from '60s. "If you're shot down wearing these, the odds of ever being shot down again while wearing these are astronomical!"
He's not odd. He's a lunatic.
Lynn Lightfoot @ 77:
Trying to get yourself elected President at an age where most people have decided to move into an assisted living facility.
Remember 'Step on a crack, break your mother's back'? Well, my mother has been dead for 5 years and a little beyond caring about this. So I step on cracks as often as I encounter a sidewalk. If any repugs are discomfitted by this, I say, 'Phfffftbbbttt!'
Any objections?
this is just too easy. all we gotta do now is show up at a few campaign stops. when mcsame reaches out for a hand shake, hand him a salt shaker. then say lookie, lookie, is that your tails up penny there on the ground? let me get that for you. he'll lose whats left of his mind and take off running down the street yelling: i am a black war criminal, i am a black war criminal!! fox news will quickly break in with a late breaking story about some missing blonde chick and obama takes a 50 state sweep landslide.
Don't tell Dobson, but I think McCain is a witch!
I'm not superstitious, myself, but I've just never liked the number 13.
* Obama, like McCain, believes that there is living an invisible man in the sky.
Seriously, C&L, you are like a puppy for the DNC. Ignoring Obama's sellout on FISA and his support for death penalty in non murder cases. Not a single story on C&L that is critical on Obama. What a saint he must be!
knud @ 87:
Did he say he supports the death penalty for non-murder cases? All I saw was that he said he didn't think it violates the Constitution, which, of course, isn't the same thing.
When he loses in November he will, of course, abandon all of his superstitions because they didn't work, right? Like when people pray but their child with leukemia dies anyway? Or when fans on both sides of a game pray that their team will win? What a huge, heapin', steamin' pile of bullshit we humans are sitting in!
What would he do if "his finger was on the button", but he forgot his lucky things at home? Unfit for command!! Nuke Iran or not? What to do? I can't function without my lucky pen. I'm immobilized.
Doesn't he know that it's bad luck to be superstitious??
He's just trying to emulate Reagan, whose wife had astrologers in the White House to help determine Ronnie's schedule.
So much for the Age of Enlightenment and rationality. Some parts of our population really do still live in the Dark Ages.
shano @ 39:
I'd love to see a link or other evidence backing this up. If true, that's a serious disqualification for being president.
That's it! McSame is a robot. Probably one of those useless Japanese ones.
Has anyone actually seen McSame climb stairs?
This wold explain why he broke his pseudoflesh covering on the roof of that smaller than programed for Canadian car.
31 cents? Isn't that 13 backwards?
In response to Zen at #93:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/26/john-mccain-his-lobbyist-gambli...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/01/sweet_victory_...
Stupid McCain
I can't believe that he doesn't know when you find a heads down penny you toss it over your shoulder.
For good luck.
RD @ 61:
Yes, but it was also one of Kerry's strengths... I would always like to see the high road taken like you do, my good man, but this is politics and if McCain wants to inject his service record, it bears scrutiny.
I saw a comment today about McCain getting into a plane and saying "Oh please let me pilot, I'll be careful with this one". That's funny stuff.
Senator McCain suffered for years as a POW. This is a left-leaning site, I love it, but please cut this POW/Veteran some slack for having a few idiosyncratic behaviors. I believe he has earned it.
And he believes in Christian Mythology too!
Anyone with only one superstition is nuts so with McCrazy having ALL of these superstitions I think that he needs to be in a strait jacket and heavily sedated with Thorazine, not running for POTUS!
ysbaddaden @ 36:
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE
Bull Meechum @ 99:
Of course he has. But he seems to think he's also somehow "earned" the presidency - which he hasn't.
One thing's for sure. He certainly won't win over hard core Christians with all of this superstitious mumbo jumbo. The evangelicals I know see such OCD poppycock as evidence of weak faith.
This shows a level of mental illness. Along with his trip hammer temper, McCain is not of sound mind to be the leader of the Free World.
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