Phy
04-15-2008, 09:02 PM
Oh, good grief.
http://video1.washingtontimes.com/joecurl/2008/04/mccain_triskaidekaphobic_1.html
McCain: Triskaidekaphobic!
Sen. John McCain is famously superstitious — he won't take a salt shaker from a passer's hand: bad luck — and now those black rituals are permeating his campaign and the people who work for him.
"That's an ugly habit I've picked up myself," said Brooke Buchanan, the senator's national press secretary. "We were in Kansas City last Sunday and someone mentioned winning in November and three of us knocked on wood. We don't want to jinx anything. We're all very superstitious people."
salter-1.pngTop adviser Mark Salter (left) has also been infected. "I grew a beard in 2000 and didn't shave until the campaign was over and I did it this time, too. That's my little superstition. I probably won't shave it until November," he said, adding that he's not sure if McCain "considers it lucky or if he considers it an eyesore.
McCain has a whole slew of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch. He won't throw a hat on a bed (bad luck), and he carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, and a lucky penny — and nickel, and quarter.
"He had so many of them that we had to cut down — it was like a change purse in his pocket," Buchanan said with a laugh. He carries a lucky penny given to him by New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid just before McCain pulled off the win there Jan. 8 (the penny was found heads up, of course).
quarter-2.jpg
McCain also carries a nickel he found outside his Columbia, S.C., hotel just before the primary there (and his second primary win gave him momentum into Florida, ending the race). He's also got a quarter in there, "but I think he just found that on the ground," Buchanan said. "It's always what he finds heads up." Still, it's what she called a "a lucky drummer boy quarter" — a 1976 commemorative quarter for the bicentennial.
He doesn't have a dime, but almost picked one up in January. When he went to the GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Arizona senator noticed a shiny dime on the floor of the stage. He stooped for a closer look, but it was tails up — rejected. (Question: What if you drop a quarter on the floor in your bathroom and it ends up heads down? You could never pick it up, right?)
He's got more stuff on him, too. On St. Patrick's Day in Chicago, "this guy had a lucky four-leaf clover that was laminated," Buchanan said. "He pulled it out of his pocket and told the senator it had brought him good luck and now the senator carries it around in his wallet."
13th-1.jpg"Am I superstitious? I'm that,'' McCain said. "But I don't think I'm alone there.''
Certainly not among his staff.
http://video1.washingtontimes.com/joecurl/2008/04/mccain_triskaidekaphobic_1.html
McCain: Triskaidekaphobic!
Sen. John McCain is famously superstitious — he won't take a salt shaker from a passer's hand: bad luck — and now those black rituals are permeating his campaign and the people who work for him.
"That's an ugly habit I've picked up myself," said Brooke Buchanan, the senator's national press secretary. "We were in Kansas City last Sunday and someone mentioned winning in November and three of us knocked on wood. We don't want to jinx anything. We're all very superstitious people."
salter-1.pngTop adviser Mark Salter (left) has also been infected. "I grew a beard in 2000 and didn't shave until the campaign was over and I did it this time, too. That's my little superstition. I probably won't shave it until November," he said, adding that he's not sure if McCain "considers it lucky or if he considers it an eyesore.
McCain has a whole slew of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch. He won't throw a hat on a bed (bad luck), and he carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, and a lucky penny — and nickel, and quarter.
"He had so many of them that we had to cut down — it was like a change purse in his pocket," Buchanan said with a laugh. He carries a lucky penny given to him by New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid just before McCain pulled off the win there Jan. 8 (the penny was found heads up, of course).
quarter-2.jpg
McCain also carries a nickel he found outside his Columbia, S.C., hotel just before the primary there (and his second primary win gave him momentum into Florida, ending the race). He's also got a quarter in there, "but I think he just found that on the ground," Buchanan said. "It's always what he finds heads up." Still, it's what she called a "a lucky drummer boy quarter" — a 1976 commemorative quarter for the bicentennial.
He doesn't have a dime, but almost picked one up in January. When he went to the GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Arizona senator noticed a shiny dime on the floor of the stage. He stooped for a closer look, but it was tails up — rejected. (Question: What if you drop a quarter on the floor in your bathroom and it ends up heads down? You could never pick it up, right?)
He's got more stuff on him, too. On St. Patrick's Day in Chicago, "this guy had a lucky four-leaf clover that was laminated," Buchanan said. "He pulled it out of his pocket and told the senator it had brought him good luck and now the senator carries it around in his wallet."
13th-1.jpg"Am I superstitious? I'm that,'' McCain said. "But I don't think I'm alone there.''
Certainly not among his staff.