Lifestyles of the 2008 Presidential Candidates

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Getty Images | AP

How Our Potential
Leaders Live in Real Life

As the presidential and vice-presidential candidates tour the country trying to inform Americans about their political beliefs and policy agendas, we take a look at how these public figures lead their private lives.

Click through our gallery as we round up information from the Associated Press 'personal sides' series, Web sites, like Votesmart.org, and writers, like freelance author Jonathan Berr, to take a peek at the White House hopefuls' homes, cars, families, churches, favorite foods and more.

First Up: Their Homes

Barack Obama, Democrat

Obama has a large, stately brick home on Chicago's South Side with an estimated value of $1.9 million. The Chicago Tribune describes it as a "96-year-old Georgian revival home that has four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar."

Next: Biden's Home

Joseph Biden, Democrat

Long-standing allegations have dogged Delaware Senator Joe Biden regarding whether or not he unduly profited from the sale of his previous home in 1996. Today the vice-presidential candidate lives in Greenville, Del. Pictured to the left are both his main home and the smaller carriage house where his mother lives.

Next: McCain's Home

John McCain, Republican

According to Architectural Digest, Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, live with their family in a southwestern-style residence in Phoenix. "My husband's favorite part about the house is probably the casual style of it," remarks Cindy McCain. "The feel is very comfortable, and he enjoys that, because he's not a formal person." McCain has taken heat for not knowing how many houses he owns.

Next: Palin's Home

Sarah Palin, Republican

According to ZillowBlog.com, a real estate Web site, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's house in Wasilla, Alaska is a two-story framed structure on a couple of acres, built in 2002 with a poured concrete foundation and no basement. According to Alaska magazine, the home was designed and built by her husband, Todd. The home has an appraised value of $552,100, according to the Matanuska-Susitana Borough real property land details. The single-family home is located on Lake Lucille.

Next: What Obama Drives

What Obama Drives

Obama drives a Ford Escape hybrid. He also used to own the Chrysler 300C, but in May 2007, CarandDriver.com criticized Obama, saying: "(Obama) comes to Detroit and blasts automakers about the need to build more-fuel-efficient cars and then drives off in his personal Chrysler 300C?" Since then, Obama has reportedly gotten rid of the Chrysler.

Next: What Biden Drives

What Biden Drives

According to the Washington Post, Biden rides Amtrak back and forth to Delaware every day when Congress is in session. But Biden isn't just one of the passenger rail system's most famous commuters, he is also one of its biggest supporters in the Senate. He also reportedly owns a 1967 Corvette, which was a wedding gift from his dad in 1967 when he married his first wife, Neilia.

Next: What McCain Drives

What McCain Drives

John McCain drives the popular Cadillac CTS.

In a Washington Post article from 2004, Mark Leibovich says, "John McCain drives like he lives: with conviction, impatience and a willingness to cross dividing lines."

Next: What Palin Drives

What Palin Drives

Palin was driving in her Chevy Suburban sport-utility vehicle when she was rear-ended in a four-vehicle chain-reaction collision at an interesection in Anchorage in July. She also owns a VW Jetta TDI and an Artic Cat F6 snowmobile.

Next: Obama's Family

Obama's Family

Obama and his wife Michelle have daughters Malia (9) and Sasha (6).

Next: Biden's Family

Biden's Family

Joe Biden is married to Dr. Jill Biden, the former Jill Jacobs, an educator in Delaware's schools. She currently is a professor teaching at Delaware Technical Community College. Senator Biden is the father of three children: Beau, Hunter and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware's Attorney General, Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is a lawyer. The Bidens also have five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel, Natalie, and Robert Hunter.

Next: McCain's Family

McCain's Family

McCain comes from a military family where both his father and grandfather were U.S. Navy admirals. He has been married twice. His current wife Cindy is 17 years his junior. McCain has seven children including a 15-year-old adopted daughter from Bangladesh.

Next: Palin's Family

Palin's Family

Sarah Palin and her husband Todd have five children -- Track (19), Bristol (17), Willow (13), Piper (7) and Trig (5 months). Track is in the U.S. Army and is set to deploy to Iraq. The Palins were forced to publicly acknowledge Bristol's teen pregnancy amid false rumors that baby Trig, who has Down's syndrome, was Bristol's son.

Next: Obama's Church

Obama's Former Church

On Saturday, May 31, Barack Obama resigned from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The resignation came days after a visiting Catholic priest mocked Hillary Clinton there, and after his minister of about 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, drew unwanted attention as videos of his fiery and controversial sermons surfaced.

Next: Biden's Church

Biden's Church

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, is a Roman Catholic who would become, if elected, the first Catholic vice-president of the U.S. A devout Catholic, Biden attends Mass at St. Patrick's Church or St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church, both parishes in the Diocese of Wilmington.

Next: McCain's Church

McCain's Church

According to an article in the Associated Baptist Press, "John McCain has a deep and personal Christian commitment despite his reluctance to speak publicly about it, according to the man McCain calls his pastor. Dan Yeary, pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church, described the Arizona senator and his wife, Cindy, as 'very unobtrusive' people who don't seek special attention when they are able to come to worship. McCain, a lifelong Episcopalian, has been attending the Southern Baptist-affiliated church in Phoenix for at least 17 years. But [he] has neither officially joined the congregation nor been baptized."
Next: Palin's Church

Palin's Church

Palin was baptized a Roman Catholic as an infant. She began attending Wasilla Assembly of God, a church affiliated with a pentecostal denomination, as a teenager. A spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign has said Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself a pentecostal. The Palin's youngest son was recently dedicated at Wasilla Bible Church, a nondenominational, evangelical church.

Next: Obama's Parents

Obama's Parents

Barack Obama Sr. was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British. Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Barack's parents met at the University of Hawaii. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship there. Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia.

Next: Biden's Parents

Biden's Parents

When Biden was a child, his father Joseph R. Biden, Sr. (1915-2002) prospered as a car salesman in suburban New Castle, Delaware. At the Democratic National Convention, Biden told a story about how his mother, Eugenia "Jean" Biden, told him that when he got knocked down by guys bigger than him, he should go back out and "bloody their nose" so he can walk down the street the next day. His mother is now 90 years old.

Next: McCain's Parents

McCain's Parents

John McCain was born in 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, Panama, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911'1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (b. 1912). At that time, the Panama Canal was under American control.

Next: Palin's Parents

Palin's Parents

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children of Sarah Heath (Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach.

Next: Obama's Youth

Obama's Childhood

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. His father was an economist from Kenya and his mother was an anthropologist from Kansas. In a third-grade essay Obama said he wanted to become president. The Illinois senator, graduated from Harvard Law where he was the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

(Source: NYTimes.com, ChicagoTribune.com)

Next: Biden's Youth

Biden's Childhood

Biden is the oldest of four siblings and suffered from stuttering through much of his childhood and into his twenties; he overcame it via long hours spent reciting poetry in front of a mirror. Biden attended the Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware where he was reportedly athletically, not academically, oriented and a natural leader among the students.

Next: McCain's Youth

McCain's Childhood

The son and grandson of distinguished Navy admirals, John McCain was born in Panama in 1936. At that time, the Panama Canal was under American control and his father was stationed there. In 1951, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria. In high school, he excelled at wrestling. When asked his best and worst grades or subjects at school, he has said, "I never got good grades."

Next: Palin's Youth

Palin's Childhood

Palin was the third of four children. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. As a child, she would sometimes go moose hunting with her father before school, and the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races. Palin was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of her high school's girls' basketball team. She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.

Next: First Jobs

Presidential Candidates:
First Jobs

John McCain: Naval Aviator, U.S. Navy

Barack Obama: Community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods

(Source: Votesmart.org, U.S. News & World Report, Barackobama.com)

Next: V-P Candidates' Jobs

Vice-Presidential Candidates: First Jobs

Joseph Biden: Lifeguard

Sarah Palin: Sports reporter for KTUU-TV

(Source: Votesmart.org; Wikipedia)

Next: Their Birthplaces

Their Birthplaces

Barack Obama: Honolulu, Hawaii

John McCain: Panama Canal Zone, Panama

Joseph Biden: Scranton, Penn.

Sarah Palin: Sandpoint, Idaho

(Source: Votesmart.org; Wikipedia)

Next: Their Hobbies

Their Hobbies

John McCain: Hiking, fishing, boxing, basketball, football, history and spending time as a barbecue grill chef

Barack Obama: Basketball

Sarah Palin: Fishing

Joseph Biden: Designing homes, sketching

Next: Their Favorite Foods

Their Favorite Food

Barack Obama: (to cook) Chili

John McCain: Chocolate ice cream, pizza with pepperoni and onions, baby-back ribs

Joseph Biden: Pasta

Sarah Palin: Moose stew

(Source: Votesmart.org, Slate.com)

Next: Astrological Signs

Their Astrological Signs

John McCain: Virgo

Barack Obama: Leo

Sarah Palin: Aquarius

Joseph Biden: Scorpio

Next: Personal Heroes

Personal Hereos

John McCain: Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater

Barack Obama: Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Pablo Picasso, and John Coltrane

(Source: Votesmart.org)

Next: Favorite TV Shows

Favorite TV Shows

John McCain: '24,' 'Seinfeld'

Barack Obama: 'SportsCenter,' C-SPAN

(Source: Votesmart.org)

Next: Favorite Books

Favorite Books

John McCain: 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)

Barack Obama: 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'; 'Song of Solomon' by Toni Morrison; 'Moby Dick'; Shakespeare's tragedies; 'Parting the Waters'; 'Gilead' by Robinson; 'Self-Reliance' by Emerson; The Bible, Lincoln's collected writings

(Source: Votesmart.org)

Next: Favorite Movies

Favorite Movies

John McCain: 'Viva Zapata,' 'Letters From Iwo Jima,' 'Some Like It Hot'

Barack Obama: 'Casablanca,' 'Godfather I and II,' 'Lawrence of Arabia,' 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'

(Source: Votesmart.org)

Next: Favorite Musicians

Favorite Musicians

John McCain: Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison

Barack Obama: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees

(Source: Votesmart.org, Facebook.com

Next: Education

Collegiate Education

Barack Obama: JD, Harvard Law School, 1991 BA, Columbia University, 1983 Attended, Occidental College.

John McCain: National War College, 1973-1974, BS, U.S. Naval Academy, 1958.

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware in 1965, and from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968.

Sarah Palin: BA, Communications/ Journalism, University of Idaho, 1987

(Source: Votesmart.org)
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Lifestyles of the 2008 Presidential Candidates

How Our PotentialLeaders Live in Real Life

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Barack Obama, Democrat

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Joseph Biden, Democrat

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John McCain, Republican

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Sarah Palin, Republican

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What Obama Drives

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What Biden Drives

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What McCain Drives

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What Palin Drives

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Obama's Family

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Biden's Family

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McCain's Family

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Palin's Family

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Obama's Former Church

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Biden's Church

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McCain's Church

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Palin's Church

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Obama's Parents

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Obama's Childhood

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Biden's Childhood

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McCain's Childhood

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Palin's Childhood

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Presidential Candidates:First Jobs

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Their Birthplaces

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Their Favorite Food

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Their Astrological Signs

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Personal Hereos

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Favorite TV Shows

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