John McCain is a believer

"Don't try to pass a salt shaker to John McCain," reports the archconservative, Sun Myung-Moon controlled Washington Times. "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... Whenever anyone says something optimistic — especially about this fall's general election — a slew of staffers join him in knocking on wood... 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 had so many of them that we had to cut down. It was like a change purse in his pocket," Miss Buchanan said, laughing. Joseph W. McQuaid, publisher of the Union Leader newspaper of Manchester, N.H., gave Mr. McCain a lucky penny he'd found (heads up, of course) just before Mr. McCain won the New Hampshire primary, on Jan. 8. Mr. McCain also pocketed a nickel he found outside his hotel in Columbia, S.C., just before that state's primary — his second primary win. As for the quarter, "I think he just found that on the ground," Miss Buchanan said. "It's always what he finds, heads up." ... He doesn't have a dime — a lucky one, that is — but he almost picked up one in January. When he went to the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Mr. McCain noticed a shiny dime on the stage floor. He stooped for a closer look, but it was tails up — rejected... On St. Patrick's Day in Chicago, "this guy had a lucky four-leaf clover that was laminated," Miss 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." ... Oddly, the campaign's headquarters is on the 13th floor of a high rise in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, even though the elevator button says "M." "Why did you have to bring that up? It is the M floor, the M floor, for McCain!" Miss Buchanan said."