By their offices ye shall know them.
The personalities and personal histories of John McCain and Barack Obama are as evident in the artwork, books and mementoes in their Senate offices as in any words they may utter.
McCain's office oozes comfy clutter and informality: random piles of books, a fortune-cookie message taped to the desk, an abundance of tchotchkes and bric-a-brac.
Obama's office feels more like a gallery of modern art: precisely placed objects, sparsely adorned surfaces, clean lines, choreographed displays.
Both offices show their occupants' sentimental streak: McCain has a picture of his favorite high school teacher, and a 1904 Navy register that lists his grandfather as a midshipman. Obama has a photo of the cliff in Hawaii where his mother's ashes were scattered into the Pacific, and a tiger-beating stick from his grandmother's village in Kenya.
A walking tour of the Senate offices of the two presidential candidates tells a tale of their occupants:
(McCain)
Some of the things covering the Capitol Hill office desktop of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Monday, July 21, 2008, in Washington. Asked by the Associated Press during an interview if there could one day be a dancing hamster and a Barry Goldwater bobble-head, left, in the Oval Office, McCain, laughed and said, 'There should be.' He added that he'd seen a McCain bobble-head recently. 'Maybe we'd have to have that,' he said. 'You've got to have a little humor.'
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in Washington Monday, July 21, 2008, there is only one glad-handing political photo in the office, and it is of McCain posing with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and Falwell's wife, Macel, in 2006. The inscription to McCain from the televangelist reads: 'You are a great American, a national treasure and I am glad to say my good friend.' That would be the same Falwell McCain referred to during his first presidential run in 2000 as an 'agent of intolerance'. They reconciled.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in Washington Monday, July 21, 2008, the Republican presidential has 1904 Navy register that lists his grandfather as a midshipman. Atop it is a bible.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
An 18th century muzzle loader rests up against the wall of the Capitol Hill office of Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Monday, July 21, 2008, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
On a table in the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Monday, July 21, 2008, in Washington is a fist-sized chunk of reddish rock mounted on a base with the inscription 'Hoa Lo Hanoi Hilton.' It's another small but powerful reminder of McCain's five and a half years as a POW.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
On the imposing marble mantel of the fireplace in Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., office on Capitol Hill Monday, July 21, 2008, in Washington is one of McCain's most prized possessions: a baseball signed by Red Sox great Ted Williams, a childhood hero.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In his Capitol Hill office in Washington Monday, July 21, 2008, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an avid reader, has books stacked seven- oreight-high along the length of a window sill. They include among McCain's favorite 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.'
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
(Obama)
The desk in Sen. Barack Obama's office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, once used by former Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, is a testament to discipline. It is home to two family photos, a very uncrowded inbox, a mug full of pens, and little else.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In the office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, is a painting by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., dedicated to the Illinois senator with the words, 'To Barack - I love your audacity. With great respect and warmest wishes.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
On a wall in the office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, is a photo, left, of the cliff in Hawaii, where Obama's mother's ashes were scattered into the Pacific, and at center a 2004 portrait of Thurgood Marshall by Chaz Guest on loan from the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Ill.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, one item that Obama originally planned to mount on the wall wound up on the floor; it's a white Gibson guitar that Obama received as a Rock the Vote honoree. The holes were already drilled to hang it on the wall when a guitar player who happened to be visiting the office convinced Obama that the instrument should be preserved in its case. Obama himself doesn't play.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
A wall in Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, displays a personal collection of photos taken by Obama's former personal assistant, David Katz, in various political settings, such as the Democratic National Convention and a Rainbow PUSH event, but also with his wife, and daughters. Hanging next to the photo of Muhammad Ali over a fallen Sonny Liston in their 1965 rematch, left, used to be the most prominent item in the office: a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Ali. The gloves were put in storage; aides said visitors were too prone to handle them.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
On the side table of Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., office in the Senate Hart Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, is a tiger-beating stick from his grandmother's village in Kenya, and under the table is a white Gibson guitar that Obama received as a Rock the Vote honoree.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008, is the 'wall of heroes' containing historic photos of those the senator admires. Abe Lincoln is there, as well as Gandhi with his spinning wheel, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. The arrangement includes a framed original program from the 1963 March on Washington where King delivered his 'I have a dream' speech. There also is a framed copy of the Life magazine cover from 1965 showing civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala. It is signed by John Lewis, a protester who was bludgeoned at Selma and now is a member of Congress.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The desk of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is seen in his Senate office in the Hart Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 24, 2008. Obama has been a senator only since 2005, and his office in the Hart Office Building has a fresh, clean look to it. 'He's tidy. It stays tidy,' said Ashley Tate-Gilmore, the Illinois senator's executive assistant.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
