Note added: July 21st - I will definitely be updating this article at some point with a follow-up. Since I wrote it, it turns out that Obama's birthtime is not what it was originally thought to be. And now there is even some question about McCain's birth time after his mother mentioned him being born at 11 am, although there appears to be a more solid basis for a time around 9 am. If McCain's time is incorrect, then my interpretatin below would definitely be different. But I will probably revisit the election after the Vice Presidents are announced.


The Following was Published May 1st, 2008:

Like most people, I wrote him off in the Fall of last year because his winning just didn’t make sense at the time. His political obituaries were being written. But knowing his vedic chart, I’m really not that surprised that he came back. I wish I’d had the guts to predict it then.

I’m going to make my best prediction here, which is that John McCain will be the next US President. It’s not what I want, politically speaking, but that’s my best forecast. No astrologer knows the future for sure, though, and ultimately it’s a matter of probabilities rather than certainties. I would say I am about 80% confident in this prediction.

Now the conventional wisdom is in the Democrats’ favor because of Iraq, the economy, gas prices, their fundraising advantage, and so forth, so McCain’s obituaries are being written again. I’d say don’t fall for it. Even when I last wrote you after Barack won the SC primary in dramatic fashion, I had to first say some good things about McCain’s chances (see what I said here). McCain has already come back from the dead; where he is positioned considerably better than where he was last year. And although Obama emerged immediately after Pluto entering Capricorn as the new Democratic hero, McCain won Florida right after that too, so he was also the Republican rising star.

Now if you’re like me and looking for some good news for the Democrats (and I’m having a pretty hard time finding that, astrologically or otherwise), I’m starting to think that Obama and Hillary are going to run together, and that would give them, at least on paper, a strong ticket. For one, Hillary is making it almost a requirement that she be on the ticket because of her following and showing in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania. For another, if you use her 8:02 am chart (which I pretty strongly favor for her, due to the actual evidence for it, as well as astrological reasons), it will mean that the transiting Sun will be EXACTLY on her Midheaven on the night of August 27th, when the Democrats’ Vice Presidential nominee will speak. This seems to show her in a place like the mid-day Sun, of great power where everyone can see her.

However, having Hillary on the ticket might not be a good thing in the end, as I’ll discuss below. A similar argument can also be made against Obama, though.

If anyone is wondering why I don’t think Hillary will win the nomination, it’s really just simple math. Unless he’s caught with a live boy or a dead girl (although at the rate things have been going, I shouldn’t rule out any possibility for Obama—who I genuinely like by the way), Obama is going to have more delegates than her. I think it’s that simple. A few other things I’ve seen seem to confirm this as well. Nothing against Hillary. If she pulls it off, then it would be quite an accomplishment, but the odds are heavily against it. And it’s hard to imagine that she gets the nod with transiting Ketu on her Saturn right now (more below). The news continues to show more superdelegates breaking for Obama, and many former Clinton superdelegates are also switching to Obama, while the reverse is not occurring.

Some hard facts also favor the Republicans. Their convention is after the Democrats, which means that they can choose their VP to counter the Dems nominee and VP, and they get the last word, which means the Democratic convention’s positive bounce will probably be very short-lived. I’m not a fan of the Republican party, but those guys know how to strategize an election. Although, the Democrats at least picked Colorado, a state they really need to win this year.

Don’t be surprised if the Republicans win the electoral college and lose the popular vote again, like in 2000. Unfortunately, the electoral college makes things harder for the Democrats this year. Obama is probably not as strong in Ohio and Florida, and will have to fight hard to try to pick up New Mexico and Colorado, and if he’s lucky, maybe even North Carolina and Indiana (some current polls in those states are tied). But the electoral college map probably helps the Republicans. By the way, there are some very realistic scenarios that have the electoral college emerging with a 269-269 tie, however if that happened, the Democrats would still probably win the election since the House would pick the President.

Let’s actually talk again about Mitt Romney. Last November or December, I tried to come up with a prediction for who would win the Republican nomination on a message board. I decided too quickly and didn’t do enough of my homework at the time, but one fact stood out and that was that Mitt Romney would have transiting Uranus on his natal Sun during the Republican convention and throughout much of the year. So I went with him, not trusting what I knew about McCain’s strong vedic dasa cycles (which I obviously should have trusted).

A couple weeks later, I had to prepare for a talk at the Metro Atlanta Astrological Society on the election, and while preparing for that, I realized the mistake I made about Romney. Because even though the long-view had something very favorable for him, I had first neglected to look at Super Tuesday when Saturn would oppose his Mars. This is a perfect example of why you have to look at short-term transits, and not just long-term ones. Long-term, he had the goods. But Saturn wasn’t going to let him get past Super Tuesday.

Technically, McCain dealt with an obstacle on that day as well (Saturn on his Sun) and still had to fight Huckabee and his own lack of popularity with evangelicals for a while longer. However, with Romney’s strong transit during the Republican Convention, it probably means that he will either get the VP nomination (as the Reps try to steal Michigan away from the Democrats), or that he gives the speech of his life and launches his next election bid (or next position in the government) in a way perhaps similar to how Obama did it at the DNC in 2004. I think he will at least be highlighted somehow in a positive way at the RNC. Romney actually had the same aspect occur recently, and he got some good press for reading a funny top ten list at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents dinner. It will be interesting for me to watch what happens with him.

Another example of this “false start” was Hillary Clinton. What I think really sunk her, astrologically, is transiting Mars. It stationed on her Uranus (on her 8th house cusp) in January, and that pretty much guaranteed that she was going to get some really bad press early on. That’s obviously not a recipe for success. The same happened for Huckabee with the transiting South Node on his Venus-Mars-Pluto early on; a very inauspicious start. The same happened to Ron Paul a bit later, who had the South Node transit his Leo Sun not long ago.

I told a good astrological friend of mine who was high on Obama’s chances to watch out for the transiting South Node to come up on Obama’s Uranus, too; that that was also going to bring him some really bad press. This aspect occurred mainly in the month of April, and very arguably began in March. And of course that’s when the Rev. Wright fiasco began (March-April).

Students of astrology will note that the images of Wright are very much about the astrological caricature of the South Node (called Ketu in India), and Uranus. Ketu, because Wright’s image has seemed fiery, intense, critical, and, well, to a lot of people a bit like a weird, scary figure. Uranus, because he is an eccentric, old, revolutionary, community organizer, and more.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me after having studied many political races and sports contests, that the very worst thing you can have happen to you when you need to “win” is to be visited by that old South Node (Ketu). Chiron is pretty rough, too, but the South Node is probably the worst.

Remember, this is what sank John Kerry in 2004, as I talked about that year. The South Node visited his Venus in Scorpio right during the “Swift boat” fiasco. Once again, some shadowy, critical figures emerged and left Kerry powerless, just as it did to Huckabee earlier this year (although Huckabee kind of sunk himself by making some far out comments), and just like it did to Ron Paul (who by the way had some racist comments come up from his past newsletters), and just like it’s doing to Obama right now. When the South Node comes to visit, mark it down: you can’t win.

But this year is really weird. Because the South Node is also set to visit Hillary Clinton’s Mars-Pluto conjunction at the worst possible time (October/November), not to mention her Saturn in May and June (denying her the nomination, probably). If Hillary is on the ballot (and I’m starting to think she will be the VP candidate, although I could be wrong), then she is quite probably going to get hit hard by some kind of scandals at the last minute of the campaign. And the Republicans have been doing that research on the Clintons for a long, long time now; you know they’ve got something saved up. At that time, she may be getting back her own karma of having beat up on Barack with some low blows earlier in the process.

But the really weird part is that the South Node is going to visit John McCain’s Mars ALSO in November (although his transit being just after Hillary’s), and Barack Obama’s Sun (at the same degree as McCain’s Mars).

This tells me a few things. One, Hillary Clinton probably isn’t winning any election this year, whether as President or Vice President. Two, the only way John McCain might be able to win is if Hillary is on the ballot, since her situation is probably (and miraculously for him) even worse than his. Three, John McCain’s problems come a bit later than Hillary’s, like perhaps RIGHT AFTER the election.

It’s easy for me to envision a scenario where McCain wins the election, perhaps in a very much contested fashion, and then either has to deal with major riots, or just a ton of bad press from the media, because most people in the media will feel ticked off about four more years of George W Bush and having spent so much time talking about Reverend Wright for cheap ratings while giving McCain a free ride.

Obama will also be beat up following the election. I assume this will be because everyone will take out their frustration on him, just as they did to John Kerry after 2004. “There is no second act in Amercian politics.” Well, Obama might be back because he’s still young, but he should get prepared to be blamed for everyone else’s poor choices. They’ll call him a wimp, or whatever else the media has to call him in order to take the blame off of themselves for not covering substantial issues.

Many have talked about the upcoming Saturn-Uranus opposition that is exact on the day of this year’s election. And it’s a big deal, folks. The easy interpretation is that the electorate will be sharply divided. Now boy, that’s really going out on a limb, isn’t it? So I’m not just going to say that, because that’s a bit silly, even though it’s obviously going to be true. I’m going to say that something(s) are going to happen on that date that are going to be historically remembered. Something not so good. It reminds me a lot of Mercury going retrograde on the day of the 2000 Bush-Gore election; that probably indicated some shenanigans had been responsible for Bush’s election. But this time, I hate to say it, but it may be something even more memorable. I’m thinking that riots with a racial flavor are a distinct possibility, and watch for some of the most intense rebellion we’ve seen in a long time.

Now of course Americans, on the whole, don’t know how to rebel anymore. We know how to sit on our butts and maybe mail a check to some group, or how to make a post on someone’s blog, or complain to our friends on the phone. But let’s fact it, we don’t know how to change the world anymore. It’s going to take some very angry people, people who aren’t fat and lazy with all of their creature comforts, to try to get someone’s attention. And who does that sound like? It sounds like inner city America to me. As someone who grew up in a white suburb, I can tell you that we not only don’t know how to oppose our government, we don’t even know where to go to do it. Washington, DC? Well that’s just plain inconvenient. Nah, let’s just complain some more and hope for something better in another four years. Although if you’re a radical, you might want to go ahead and start planning your carpool to DC.

Many astrologers have been talking about the upcoming configurations involving Uranus squaring Pluto, and predicting some more revolutionary times. These patterns play out a lot beginning probably in 2011 (maybe 2012). Well it may be “four more years” via McCain that goes a long way towards creating those times.

Let’s talk about why I think McCain will probably beat Obama. And really, I mean really, I hope I am wrong. I could be. I definitely could be wrong. But this is what I think is the most likely scenario. And if I turn out to be wrong, then it’s not necessarily the astrology’s fault; it might just be my own interpretation that was completely off.

In 2004 it was the vedic charts that made me feel like Bush was more likely to win over Kerry. And this time, it’s like that multiplied by ten. Whereas I leaned towards Bush then but had to agonize over the decision, this decision feels much easier to make.

McCain is going into his major Mercury Period (maha dasha). And even though we don’t know Obama’s time for sure, we know he is in his major Jupiter Period. McCain has perhaps the most powerful thing a person can have in his chart: Mercury in Virgo with Virgo Rising. Now this may cause the person to be a bit grating, because it’s as if they’re too smart for their own good, so that might make him not so much fun to hang out with, but it’s also mega-powerful and it speaks well to the free ride McCain always seems to get with the media. His Mercury is outstanding from a jyotish point of view. By the way, the reason why it’s so powerful is you’ve got a planet in its own sign and its exaltation sign ruling the 1st and the 10th houses, while sitting in the 1st house, and having dig bala, or directional strength (and not too far from its maximum degree of exaltation). And in his Hindu chart, that Mercury is basically unaspected by any problematic planets (unless you count rashi aspects).

What that tells me is that McCain is going into a very prominent, and actually a very powerful, time in his life. If I ws John McCain, this is exactly how I would draw things up; I'd say there's no better cycle in his chart for him to be going into in order to come out on top. Although it’s hard for me to imagine how he could lose the election, if he somehow lost it, then I would see him going into a new direction with his career, perhaps doing more writing, speaking, or hosting some kind of media show. It’s hard to imagine him doing more speaking than he is now, but it’s possible that he would keep up with that. I think it’s more likely that he’ll win, though.

It's true that McCain will be dealing with Saturn going over his Sun again, as well as his Neptune and Venus, while opposing his natal Saturn and squaring his Jupiter. But note that his Sun, in Hindu astrology, is in Leo in his 12th. The Sun in the 12th can be a recipe for a President because his/her leadership is totally consumed by the needs of the collective. And McCain has a very powerful Saturn in Aquarius in the 6th house in his vedic chart, suggesting that he can overcome difficulties related to Saturn.

Now, for Obama, we have to look at his Jupiter. And this is a problem. His Jupiter is in Capricorn in Hindu astrology, and according to the Hindu tradition, close to its most debilitated degree (that’s not good), which in that system is 5 Capricorn. Yes, it is rescued in a number of positive (neecha bhanga) ways, so there may be “hope,” but when you contrast this with McCain, I think it’s a no-contest in favor of McCain. Because while McCain is getting that Mercurial free pass (even when he’s attacked, it doesn’t seem to go anywhere), I fear Obama will have to deal with depressing circumstances (a very Fallen Jupiter) that will make hope seem like a four-letter word, whether it’s Wright, Rezko, Ayers, or something or someone else. And of course, it’s interesting that Wright is a preacher, a very Jupiterian archetype. Don’t be surprised if Obama’s housing deal with Rezko comes back, too.

We don't have a strongly confirmed time for Obama's birth yet, although the 1:06 pm time is probably close to the truth, in my opinion. But even if his time is wrong, we still know that he will be in that Jupiter maha dasha, and no matter what time he's born, I think it still doesn't look very good compared to McCain.

I wrote you in January about some of the Jupiterian things happening for Obama this year. The problem with that is that Jupiter is, in my experience, more likely to indicate that you lose and get to go on vacation. Kerry had that problem in 2004. I suspect the same for Obama in 2008.

Let’s focus still on the South Node in synastry contacts between Obama and McCain. You might remember that I pointed out in 2004 that Bush’s South Node “eclipsed” John Kerry’s Sun. Well we have something similar this time, because McCain’s South Node “eclipses” Barack Obama’s Venus. Interesting that McCain has already attacked Obama over going back on his promise about accepting public financing (Venus and money) for the election. That criticism may come back, or perhaps it will be a media driven “my wife is better first lady material than your wife,” or maybe it will be something else. But remember that the South Node pretty much means “you lose.” And I think that’s what McCain represents to Obama: that McCain will probably beat him.

Look also at what will be happening when the conventions will have their candidates speak. For the Democrat, it will be while Venus is close to her most fallen degree in the tropical zodiac, 28 Virgo (technically it's 27, but this is close), with Venus squaring Pluto at the Galactic Center (a MASSIVE black hole, which is not the positive place that many astrologers believe it to be); this could suggest the “female” problem that the nominee could have, whether that’s bitter Clinton supporters that refuse to support Obama (which seems unlikely IF she’s on the ticket), or Hillary’s own negative public opinion if she is nominated (since she is a woman, i.e. Venus), or some other rather unpleasant issues for Obama.

Meanwhile, the Republicans will have their nominee speak with the Sun in an exact trine to Jupiter, with the Sun being sort of grounded by its conjunction with Saturn at the same time. Sidereally, it’s Sun in Leo trine Jupiter in Sag. That, to me, looks like the next President. The responsibility of leadership, and the “luck” to win.

Lastly, look at the secondary progressed charts of the candidates on election day. McCain’s has a Jupiter-NNode conjunction on the Ascendant in tropical Sagittarius, and Obama has a quite exact Mercury-Mars conjunction in tropical Libra. McCain’s situation looks extraordinary and Obama’s looks frustrated. Jupiter events are often bad news for politicians, but I think in this case it’s pretty extraordinary for McCain because of the North Node, the progressed Ascendant, and because of Jupiter in its own sign, while Obama has to deal with seeming too balanced (perhaps not fighting hard enough), oddly enough.

Although before anyone jumps to any conclusions from this that Hillary would be a better nominee than Barack, I honestly don’t think so from an astrological point of view. As I mentioned, the South Node really seems to be denying Hillary what she wants in October and November, and on top of that her transits look, to me, like a train wreck on election day. There will be a Mars-Neptune square across her angles (Mars on ASC), on top of double Mars-South Node contacts. Closer to the election, she may be getting back her own karma of having beat up on Barack unfairly at times. And although she seems more likely to win Ohio and/or Florida, she also polls much worse than Obama in many other states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and North Carolina (and many Western states).

Speaking of the South Node, I think the South Node plays too prominent a role in Hillary’s natal chart for this to work out well for her. From the 8:02 am time, which the actual evidence is strongest for, it sits on her Ascendant conjoining her Mercury. This really explains her entire problem. Remember what I was saying about Rev. Wright, and the sort of scary figure he comes across as to people? Well with the 8:02 am birth, Hillary has the South Node on her Ascendant, and comes across much too negatively at times. Being conjoined with her Mercury, her thinking and speaking also deal with this “affliction,” making her very intelligent and perhaps crafty on the one hand (South Node as gifts), but also seem very weird and unpopular on the other hand. It makes her likely to say things that come across very harshly, and it leads some people to question where she’s coming from.

Even if Hillary is born at night with the Gemini Rising chart, then the chart ruler is Mercury, which is still conjunct the South Node—so it’s almost the same thing, although the 8:02 am chart is probably worse. I know the Hillary fans won’t like me for saying that, but in reality she is a polarizing figure and many people really dislike her. Obama is becoming a much less attractive brand right now, but most people still think he’s a decent guy.

So the Hillary and Obama fans should probably stop beating each other up, because both look flawed this year. It looks to me like neither Obama nor Hillary will win this year.

Now if McCain wins, then it’s also party time for Mike Huckabee, who will benefit somehow from this with transiting Uranus opposite his very powerful Mercury for the election. Maybe he’ll be a part of the election coverage, and this will help launch some career for him, or maybe he’ll just get a job after McCain wins. Chuck Norris’ work may not be all for naught.

Now here are some reasons for hope, the first of which is going to surprise you. If McCain wins, then I have to say that his Presidency could go much better than some of us are expecting. Now he is old, and I don’t do death predictions, so what I say is contingent upon his being alive. As long as he’s around, he’s in that very strong Mercurial phase, and this could show him making a number of good decisions. I’m no fan of our Iraq invasion, but I have to give McCain credit for recognizing and saying early on that we needed more troops there. I say this, because it may be a good example of him making a correct analysis and advocating for sort of the right thing, despite supporting the invasion in the first place. If we had gone into Iraq with more ground troops to begin with (or just been more prepared), things would seemingly be much better right now, so I for one think McCain was right about that.

Also, his Western chart shows an emphasis on Libra with Libra rising and Mercury in Libra. So he may be able to work with the other side to get some things done, and he will probably try to be fair. This is exactly what bothers so many conservatives about McCain. They feel he isn’t “one of them.” And that’s true to an extent. With a Democratic House and Senate being the most likely scenario, he would have to compromise to get things done, and I think there’s a pretty good chance this could happen with him. Oddly enough, McCain might accomplish one of Obama’s larger goals. It also seems to me like McCain’s first gut instinct on things is often correct (before he backtracks, flip flops, and plays politics), so his judgment might be all right if he doesn’t have to worry about politics so much.

I’m sure McCain would advocate things that I would disagree with, as well as other progressive folks, but you know what? He would be different than George W Bush in many ways. If he wins, I’m going to try to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least at first. We may actually be lucky that we’d be getting a President who is in a strong astrological cycle … because we haven’t had one of those for a long time. And having a different party in control of Congress could keep both sides in check. Now, coming from this guy on the left, that’s some real audacity to hope for that. But, I’m quite serious about that. At least the man is in a pretty good time period.

There are also some reasons for pessimism, though.

McCain is no stranger to the 12th house, as we would expect from a former POW. And he may find himself “trapped” in the middle of very difficult circumstances that are hard to solve. Well, that’s pretty much a given, actually. But while I think the circumstances will be tough, he may do a pretty decent job dealing with them.

Another problem, though. McCain’s Mercury is in Pisces in his Hindu navamsa (ninth harmonic) chart, which is an important chart in Hindu astrology that can show the fruits, or later stages of, one’s life. Pisces is generally the weakest position for Mercury per se. It also appears to be in the 8th house of this navamsha chart, showing that he doesn’t always make the best decisions when it comes to who to get in bed with, financially speaking. This means that his Mercury period has a mixed quality. At times he will seem to think and say the most right things. At other times … exactly the wrong things (Howard Dean also has Mercury in Pisces in his navamsa). We’ve already seen him confuse Sunni and Shiite, utter the “100 years” comment, and grin fiendishly when he talked about chasing Osama Bin Laden down to the gates of Hell. And so we could still be in for more scandal in terms of corporate welfare.

Nonetheless, the media chooses to spend about a hundred times more on what Rev Wright said (a man who, last time I checked, is not actually running for President), and gives old man McCain a free pass for not realizing that Iran isn’t training Al Qaeda, or that Al Qaeda isn’t that powerful in Iraq anymore. We aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed.

Based on this chart, if I were the Democrats and trying to find a good line of criticism on McCain I would look into his past financial dealings, as well as some of the goofier things he’s said. But again, these things may not stick to Teflon John. One of the other issues with McCain’s chart is the old “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” line, because of his vedic Mars in Cancer in the 11th. This would be his own party, and conservatives in general. The Democrats have to hope that these folks cause enough of a problem for McCain. And if he does lose, it will probably be due to them.

And in the big picture, what might all of this mean? Maybe I’m just getting older, but the optimism I once had is harder and harder to find when you know how many people are dying and suffering due to our bad policies and actions. There are still a lot of good things one can focus on in this world today, and many things to be thankful for, but I also can’t help thinking that some more passion to change things is also being called for here.

Maybe the wake up call that we need is even more than eight years of the Bush Presidency. Although that sounds silly at first, when you look around you realize how little is being done. It makes me think that we didn’t “get” the lesson yet, despite some of the bad luck and natural disasters that have hit the US since Bush was elected looking like a page out of Revelations. Of course, some of that was self-fulfilling prophecy since Bush wanted to wage a “crusade” (I still can’t believe he said that).

And lastly for the irony on me, and perhaps a good reason for you to doubt what I’m saying if you're looking for some. During the election, that tricky South Node will also be visiting two planets in my chart. So maybe the joke’s on me, “I lose,” and all of this will be wrong. Nothing would make me happier. But I’ll be frank and just say that I’ll be surprised if McCain doesn’t win. I’ll still be donating to and working on getting the Democrat elected, whoever that is, because for me that feels like the right thing to do. But I’m also not going to get my hopes up too high for that. Either way, I will genuinely have some hope for the future though. Even if it's President McCain.