Did everyone hear about John McCain's superstitions?

[ColbertWatcher]

I heard Dr. Colbert mention it on The Colbert Report.

Anyone else find this peculiar?

I can understand excusing his anger issues due to the POW thing. And his vanity problems with his age, but where and when did the superstitiousness start and is it a sign of mild OCD?

[vixengrl]

1. Wow, I had not heard of it until this post so I googled--

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/2/20/02150/0194

Primary day requires additional rituals. By the time you read this, Steve Dart, McCain's lucky friend, should have arrived in South Carolina from California. He has been present with McCain for every Election Day since McCain first won a seat in Congress. McCain must sleep on a certain side of the bed, particularly before an election (and he never puts a hat on a bed--bad luck). Rain is good for Election Day, as are motion pictures. McCain requires himself to view a movie before the vote is counted. He fell asleep in his hotel room in New Hampshire before he watched a movie on primary day, but his staff didn't panic. "We have superstition fire walls," says Todd Harris, a spokesman.

I don't like to pop-psychoanalyze, but I see an element of looking for control there, which makes sense as he was in a situation where he went without control for a long time. It would make sense, following through on that, that "loss of control" would be a temper-trigger. An interesting tidbit for the file, if you will.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Interesting...

...I never thought of the control issue thing.

But it makes sense, and all I have is an imaginary internets degree in psychology that I just downloaded.

[lonestarnot]

4. Sound like a fucking hitler to me. Creepy fucker.

[leftchick]

8. are you refering to when he was a POW?

He had more control than most prisoners as he collaborated with his captors.


http://dissentmag.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/hero-john-mccain-as-phony-and-collaborator-what-really-happened-when-he-was-a-pow/

“Hero” John McCain as Phony and Collaborator: What Really Happened When He Was a POW?

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

John McCain’s been getting kid-glove treatment from the press for years, ever since he wriggled free of the Keating scandal and his profitable association – another collaboration, you might say — with the nation’s top bank swindler in the 1980s. But nothing equals the astounding tact with which his claque on the press bus avoids the topic of McCain’s collaborating with his Vietnamese captors after he’d been shot down.

Note - video “POW’s Say John McCain Is A Lying Skunk !!!!!” and “Vietnam Veterans Against McCain” below the article

How McCain behaved when he was a prisoner is key. McCain is probably the most unstable man ever to have got this close to the White House. He’s one election away from it. Republican senator Thad Cochrane has openly said he trembles at the thought of an unstable McCain in the Oval Office with his finger on the nuclear trigger.

What if a private memory of years of collaboration in his prison camp gnaws at McCain, and bursts out in his paroxysms of uncontrollable fury, his rantings about “gooks” and his terrifying commitment to a hundred years of war in Iraq. What if “the hero” knows he’s a phony?

[treestar]

15. Gee I feel bad for him

and also that he should never be President

[knight_of_the_star]

17. Actually this isn't so surpising

I don't think this would make much of an issue, athletes, lawyers, and anyone else involved in a profession that has an element of direct competition like politics often have their funny rituals they do right before game time.

[ColbertWatcher]

21. One or two, but McCain seems to have many...

...McCain's behavior is more than harmless ritual; he seems to be dependent on them.

It's almost as if he cannot function unless he is following some bizzare set of prescribed motions. Poor guy, he's lost his bearings.

[knight_of_the_star]

22. I wouldn't go that far

You would be surprised how superstitious some people who are regularly in competitive situations can be.

Just think about the tea-leaf reading that happened in 2004 about Tim Russert staying election night at John Kerry's HQ, his unusual superstitions aren't so unusual and compared to things like Keating Five or his temper are small potatoes.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. I disagree, these superstitions are just as bad as his temper, IMHO. n/t

[knight_of_the_star]

24. Disagree all you like

I doubt the general public will care as much compared to some of the far more vile things he's done.

[janetle]

25. Except right wing Christians....

....find this type of behavior to be of the devil and unBiblical and indicating a lack of faith. So while I agree with you about how important it is to most poeple, if he is trying to court the right wing base, this is just another thing about him they will not like.

[struggle4progress]

3. John McCain Is Hoping Superstition Will See Him Through (WaPo 2000)

A Candidate's Lucky Charms
John McCain Is Hoping Superstition Will See Him Through

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 19, 2000; Page C01

... The candidate himself .. 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 ... 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 ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-02/19/067r-021900-idx.html

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Maybe we should just start calling him McFeather?

Start following him to all his campaign stops and wave feathers at him!

Or send him the wrong pen in the mail!

LOL.

[meow2u3]

12. What about McFeatherbrain?

:rofl:

[ColbertWatcher]

13. It rhymes! n/t

[Virginia Dare]

9. Perhaps Nancy Reagan's former astrologer is available...n/t

[elizfeelinggreat]

11. magical L.L. Bean rubber-soled dress shoes

LOL!

[BrotherBuzz]

18. Forrest Gump had a magic feather

I'm just saying. :shrug:

[alfredo]

20. Your task is to find that feather and hide it where he'd never find it.

[Perry Logan]

5. Republicans--what a bunch of mental defectives.

[BurtWorm]

7. Superstition like this sounds like a form of OCD.

Which is definitely a disabling mental disorder. Reminds me of some of the behavior Howard Hughes began to exhibit after several severe brain injuries. I wonder when this started with McCain. Does anyone know? Was it after Vietnam? After his car accident?

[Lex]

10. Yes, and it's also an anxiety reliever

for people who have serious anxiety problems.

[UTUSN]

14. Something to do with his crashing of planes?!1 n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

16. You think he was distracted by someone mentioning his bald head? n/t

[Allyoop]

19. Lucky compass?

Guess he lost his bearings cause his compass went missing?