Putting a rat in the White House?

From Economist.com

The Chinese zodiac offers some faint hope for John McCain

WITH a week to go and a poll lead of eight percentage points, by most measures Barack Obama is comfortably ahead in the presidential race in America. John McCain, however, could take heart from a less conventional predictor: his Chinese zodiac symbol. Mr McCain was born in the year of the rat, as were five presidents, including George Washington and Jimmy Carter. Pigs and snakes have been equally successful at getting to the top job. By contrast Mr Obama has been preceded by only three oxes, and one of those only made it thanks to the resignation of a rat.