25 things you may not have known about...

[Riffraff]

Obama: Link

25. His high school basketball nickname at Punahou School in Hawaii was "O'Bomber" and he favored a left-hand, double-pump shot.

24. He has two Grammy awards for recording his best-selling books, "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

23. His mother's name was Stanley Ann Dunham -- her father, Stanley, wanted a boy.

22. His mother and father, Barack Obama Sr., met in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii. She was 18. He was a scholarship student from Kenya.

21. His father, a goat herder as a child, was a member of the Luo tribe and came from a village in Kenya.

20. As a child in Indonesia he was introduced to snake meat and roasted grasshopper. His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, presented him with a pet monkey, "Tata."

19. While living in Indonesia, his mother would wake him at 4 a.m. for three hours of English lessons before he went to school.

18. His maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was a "Rosie the Riveter" at a Boeing Co. plant in Wichita, Kan., during World War II.

17. While a student at Harvard Law School, he applied to appear in a black pride pinup calendar. He was rejected by an all-female committee.

16. He met his wife, Michelle, while she was his adviser one summer when he worked at a corporate law firm in Chicago. She also is a Harvard Law School graduate.

15. On his first date with his wife, they had ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins in Chicago. (One of his jobs as a teen was scooping ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins.)

14. His favorite movies include "Casablanca," "The Godfather" films, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

13. During his community organizing days, some residents in Chicago dubbed him "baby face" because of his youthful looks.

12. He considers his worst habit to be checking his Blackberry.

11. He graduated magna cum from Harvard Law School, but he got a D in eighth-grade French.

10. His prized possession is a photograph of the cliffs of Oahu's South Shore, where his mother's ashes are scattered.

9. He is a good -- but cautious -- poker player who joined other lawmakers in Springfield, Ill., for weekly games. They dubbed their group "The Committee."

8. His music favorites include Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Yo-Yo Ma, Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z and jazz legends Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. One of his favorite songs during the political season is Dylan's "Maggie's Farm."

7. He carries good luck charms, including a gambler's lucky chit, a tiny Madonna and child, and a bracelet belonging to a soldier deployed in Iraq.

6. He announced his campaign for the presidency at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "house divided" speech.

5. His office wall has a framed original program from the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech. Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination on the 45th anniversary of that address.

4. He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali.

3. He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life.

2. He has promised his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, a dog this fall -- win or lose.

1. He doesn't like to shop.

 

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McCain: Link

25. He has a stuffed dancing hamster on display in his Senate office.

24. His wife says her obsession with electronic gadgets and technology is one of his pet peeves.

23. He says his pet peeve is politicians who talk too much. (He admits that he's guilty, too, sometimes.)

22. He's not much of a shopper, but he likes to buy rugs when traveling abroad.

21. His favorite book is "For Whom the Bell Tolls," by Ernest Hemingway.

20. He was addicted to the TV show "24."

19. He carries a lucky penny in his pocket.

18. He played Scrooge in the POWs' staging of "A Christmas Carol" at the Hanoi Hilton.

17. His movie favorites include "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," "Casablanca," and "Viva Zapata!" He and wife Cindy have seen "Mamma Mia!" twice.

16. He talks to fellow prisoners of war, those with whom he shared a cell in Vietnam, almost daily.

15. He has seven children. The first two he adopted from his first wife's previous marriage, the third was born to him and his first wife, the next three were born to him and his second wife, and the seventh they adopted from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh. He has four grandchildren.

14. His wife was in Bangladesh on a charity mission and brought home baby Bridget without checking first with McCain.

13. He describes himself as "a person who is mostly normal."

12. His parents "eloped" and got married at Caesar's Bar in Tijuana, Mexico; McCain's grandfather accompanied them.

11. He's serious about the finer points of barbecuing, and he likes to deep-fry turkeys in peanut oil.

10. He wasn't happy when Hudson, the neighbors' black lab, ate the tenderloin he'd been marinating to grill for dinner at their ranch in Sedona, Ariz.

9. He doesn't like to be alone.

8. At Christmastime, he likes to supervise the lighting of about 1,000 luminaria candles on their property in Sedona with family and friends.

7. Going on vacation with him is anything but relaxing. His children call it "Camp McCain."

6. He's an early-bird, not a night-owl.

5. He doesn't e-mail. He doesn't surf the Web. He likes to read the newspaper in print. He's attached to his cell phone.

4. His office window sill is overrun with stacks of books. He hands books off to friends once he's read them.

3. He's into fruit trees. And birds. He keeps binoculars and bird books at the ready in Sedona. His pet collection: two dogs, two turtles, a cat, a ferret, three parakeets and 13 saltwater fish.

2. His wife is super-rich. They have a prenuptial agreement.

1. He programmed digital remotes at the family's homes in Phoenix and Washington so they can call up DVDs in any room.