Obviously, lots of preparation went into the Obama campaign — as did a record number of dollars — but his not-so-secret weapon was his ability to galvanize and motivate a team. This past year, Saturn continued moving through Virgo (it started its most recent journey in September 2007 and it will continue doing so through mid-July 2010, to be exact). If you have any Virgo friends, you may have noticed that, lately, they have been even more twitchy, critical, and anxious than ever. (And yet, at the same time, they are high functioning and exhibiting bizarre ambition.)
With Jupiter in another earth sign (Capricorn), the theme of tight money is front-and-center. Yet look at how Team Obama was able to raise unprecedented amounts of money by relying on small and consistent donations from an ever-widening pool of donors. They spent it wisely, too, and were brilliant in allocating their resources.
I was in Concord, New Hampshire, a month before the primary this past year. Here's what I found: there was a street-level campaign headquarters on Main Street for John Edwards (a classically divided Gemini — there really are two Americas, aren't there, John?), which had no volunteers, no signs, no phones in place, and one befuddled and embarrassed worker who handed me a booklet of the candidate's positions. Obama's campaign HQ was behind Main Street, in a basement. The front desk of his office was occupied by a woman in a headscarf. Behind her was a ruddy-faced retiree, an empty-nest matron, and some college students, one with dreadlocks. We were greeted warmly and my four-year-old son was given a yard of Obama stickers. Everyone was relaxed. The apparatus of campaigning — wall-charts with cities and towns and volunteer names — was already in place. If Hillary Clinton, a Scorpio, had a campaign HQ in Concord, we couldn't find it, nor did we see any of her lawn signs. Scorpios are famously secretive, but this was ridiculous. (Then again, she did win, and it made her cry.)
Right now, everyone's a realist. When times are tough, we turn to fire-sign people like Barack Obama to get us charged up. We need their imaginative abilities, their relentless sociability to "play well with others" (in this case, hundreds and hundreds of appointed and elected individuals who run America). A candidate who has the power of personal persuasion and/or moral authority plus perceptible hopefulness will always prevail against the contender who lacks the same.
And frankly, once again, it wasn't John McCain's year. As a Virgo, he had Saturn bearing down on him. The ingredients were in place for him to be his best. But if you know any Virgos, you know they can be touchy, pissy, and prissy, and McCain's huffiness during the debates was duly noted. (Not only were his astrological houses in an inauspicious place, but he didn't even know how many actual houses he had.) Once the economic tsunami roared in, McCain's lack of preparation and indecisiveness were exposed. Virgos occasional characteristic of criticizing without a solution to suggest did him in.
Yes, another Leo president. Let him roar.
Symboline Dai writes "Moon Signs" for the Phoenix and will teach a class in lunar phases at the Cambridge Center on Thursday, February 5, from 6 to 8 pm. Call 617.547.6789 or visit ccae.org. She is also available for individual consultations; visit moonsigns.net for more information.
