Superstitious McCain Knocks on ... Newsroom

Even as New Hampshire voters queued up, John McCain cut the intensity by relying on some stabilizing superstition. Known to carry a lucky penny, a feather, a compass, and a pouch of sacred stones, the senator—both insurgent candidate and establishment figure—visited the Union Leader offices today, repeating the primary-day itinerary that brought him good fortune in 2000, Politico reports.

Elsewhere, hecklers came into play. As security hustled an anti-abortion protester out of Derry town hall, Rudy Giuliani appeared unfazed, the Concord Monitor reports. “It’s okay," he said. "I come from New York.” Barack Obama, similarly beset, looked for common ground with demonstrators. "That's part of the American tradition that we're proud of," he told supporters. (More John McCain stories.)