Star Signs Over
the White House

Hillary Clinton (10/26/47) Someone once said that Hillary Clinton has "alternately fascinated, bedeviled, bewitched, and appalled Americans." To that I say, yeah, just like every other powerful Scorpio woman. Clinton is one of the more complex and misunderstood energies of all sun signs. In fact, this sign has three symbols -- the scorpion, phoenix, and eagle, alluding to her multidimensionality. Each is intrinsically tied to the others, symbolizing growth phases of personal mastery. Perhaps there's no symbol more compelling than the phoenix, the bird that periodically dies and rises from the ashes. And since she's lived many (or at least three) different lives in this one, radical reinvention is Hillary's nature -- which bodes well for a public that wants nothing less than total, definitive change. Her chart is striking in another way: The majority of her planets are in the fixed signs of Scorpio and Leo. "Fixed" describes energy. Fixed-sign people carry energy similar to the hub of a moving wheel; they are the centralizing force, the unyielding, stable center. Hillary's focus and determination are obvious. If she becomes the first woman to win the presidency, she'll reinvent the wheel in more ways than one. Other Scorpio presidents: John Adams, James Garfield, Warren G. Harding, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt.

Barack Obama (8/04/61) Probe the mind of most Leos and you'll find they already think they are president (of something). Barack has four luminaries, including the sun, in theatrical Leo. He's not an actor-turned-politician, but he might as well be, with the charisma and candor this sign is known for. Leos possess the unique gift of making the people around them feel famous by virtue of standing next to their spotlight. Yet Barack's feel-good glamour is balanced by Mars in hardworking, humble Virgo. Mars tells how he'll get things done, and in Virgo his work ethic is efficiency and service. Obama appeals to "invisible helpers" -- those working to make the world a better place (Virgo) -- primarily because he considers himself one of those people. Other Leo presidents: Benjamin Harrison, Herbert Hoover, Bill Clinton.

John McCain (8/29/36) forgoes the hocus-pocus of politics because, quite simply, he's a Virgo. Virgo people don't succeed by playing a political (or any other) game better than others, but by staying closely married to problem-solution thinking -- to the humble work of the task at hand. Virgos are champions of the underdog and of the daunting task of playing an underdog's hand in a big dog's world. It's his commonality, his level-headed appeal to everyday folks that drives McCain's campaign ethos. His reputation for talking candidly and at length with reporters communicates this message. Interestingly, of these three candidates, McCain is the eldest. Astrologically, he belongs to the Pluto in Cancer generation (those born between 1914 and 1939), an era when nationalist sentiments all over the world were strong. That explains his patriotic appeal to old-fashioned values. As all Virgos know, they're only as effective as the well-being of the system they're part of. And if McCain became president, his focus would inevitably be about fixing it. Just like a Virgo. Other Virgo presidents: Lyndon Johnson, William Taft.