Meet the 2008 Presidential Candidates

Candidate Biographies

Barack Obama

Barack Obama is a first-term senator from Illinois. Previously, he served in the Illinois state Legislature and worked as a civil rights attorney. Obama has proposed legislation that would create a new employment eligibility system for companies to verify if their employees are legal residents. Obama, whose father is from Kenya, is considered by experts to be the first African-American candidate with a reasonable chance of winning the presidency.

Obama was born August 4, 1961, in Hawaii and has lived in many places, including Indonesia. Obama attended Columbia University in New York and earned a law degree at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters.

• Barack Obama's Official Web Site

John McCain

John McCain is a senator representing Arizona. He served in Vietnam, where he was a prisoner of war for more than five years. McCain was also a presidential candidate in 2000. He has called for a "greater military commitment to Iraq," saying that more troops are necessary to rebuild the nation and prevent sectarian violence. McCain supports immigration reform legislation that would provide illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and establish a temporary guest worker program.

McCain was born August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving in the U.S. Navy. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy. McCain has a wife, Cindy, seven children and four grandchildren.

• John McCain's Official Web Site