John McCain and Barack Obama Life's Milestones

For long I had been monitoring the US Elections Campaigns usually eyeing on Obama's Progress. I have an inkling that the presidential race is really tight and Obama if he'll be able to make it through may only edge with a limited margin. Just today, a Yahoo news says that McCain is inching greater towards Obama's position. Timely, I have found an online literature of McCain and Obama's life since they were born. They are two very much different candidate.

1) McCain was born 1936 in Panama Canal (72 years old)
Obama was born 1963 (45 years old)

I am sure age is a great consideration to most American voters. It is a dilemma of choosing an old wise man with untarnished record of military service and history of courage and honor, from a brilliant, young candidate with charisma reflecting from him. Obama is a JFK of the 21st Century America.

2) McCain has two marriages.
Obama has grown up apart from his father of Kenyan origin. He grew up with his mother who had married an Indonesian. Obama had lived in Hawaii and Indonesia before finally settling in United States.

3) McCain has a service record of Navy lieutenant and must have been promoted to Admiral but decided to work in a private company owned by his wealthy father-in-law.
Obama is a graduate of Harvard School of Law with Magna Cum Laude title and is the first Black to be the President of Harvard Law Review.

4) McCain has served in the House of Representative in 1982 and 1984 (apparently while being backed up by his father-in-law) before serving the Senate in 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004 while Obama has a record of serving the grassroots as Community Organizer of a church-based group Developing Communities Project, as a lecturer of constitutional law in Chicago Law School (1993) before finally being elected as Illinois Senator in 1996 and US Senator in 2004.

5) McCain's campaign is supported by funds earned through traditional fund raising.
Obama's fund raising involves even a 100 US Dollar donation of an ordinary US citizen. A site devoted to community involvement with Barack's campaign is also set-up with now million of members. See http://my.barackobama.com/.

6) Both has written books. McCain's book "Faith of my Fathers" (1998) is about his personal experience as a war veteran in Vietnam. The book is later portrayed in a TV production in 2005. His second book was published in 2002 entitled "Worth the Fighting For". He has third book in 2005 "Character is Destiny".
Obama has three books: Audacity to Hope (1988), Dreams from my Father (1995) and Audacity of Hope (2006).

7) McCain's father is a name in the US Armed Forces.
Obama's parents are academicians: his father an economist from Kenya and his mother an anthropologist.

8) Obama is known for his Anti-Iraq War stance his famous speech delivered in 2002 while McCain' service record in the Navy reaffirms his Iraq War discourse. In 2007, McCain supports increased troops in Iraq.

9) Both has a young family with McCain's eldest age 24. Obama's eldest Malia is only 9 years old.


Now, America has to decide tough. But Obama is more promising to the outside world other than America.

Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/03/us/politics/20080203_MCCAIN_TIMELINE.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/12/29/us/politics/20071229_OBAMA_TIMELINE.html