Reluctant preppies. Obama and McCain don't fit the madras-shorts, popped-collar mold. But they are both products of urban private schools, which shaped them into observant and ambivalent members of the Establishment. At the Punahou School in Honolulu, Obama was popular but says he felt estranged at times. The same was true for McCain, who attended Episcopal High School, in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va. Neither man was a stellar student; neither was a paragon of teacher's-pet leadership. Instead, they earned their alpha-male street cred through athletics and an active social life with a whiff of beer (McCain) or weed (Obama).

Distant, remarkable fathers. Reared in a traditional Navy family, McCain knew his dad more by his long, heroic absences than by his presence. The same was true for his father's father: Navy men were meant to be at sea. McCain admired the accomplishments of his four-star forebears--usually from a distance. That distance was exaggerated at times by his father's heavy drinking. McCain, for the most part, was reared by his mother, Roberta, to whom he remains close.

Obama's story is surprisingly similar. He, too, had a distant father with elements of heroism and daring. The elder Obama had been a brilliant student in Kenya. Taken under the wing of English colonialists there, he had attended fine schools and was tapped for a scholarship in America. But he and Obama's mother separated two years after Obama was born and, after obtaining a Ph.D. at Harvard, the father returned to Kenya. His son saw him only once after that. The dad--who was known for his wild streak and inability to hold his liquor--died in a car crash in 1982.

Sons who mine their relationships with their fathers for successful books. The titles are familiar: Obama's "Dreams From My Father," McCain's "Faith of My Fathers." Both candidates have an eye for good writing and literature, and no modern presidential campaign beside this one has featured two men who have written so many volumes. The parental theme is obvious, but not the only one they have pursued. Obama wrote his first book entirely on his own; his second, "The Audacity of Hope," benefited from extensive research by friends and staff, though Obama put it through his own laptop.

In literal terms, McCain doesn't "write" his own best sellers; his best friend and literary alter ego, Mark Salter, does. On the other hand, McCain and Salter have spent literally years together, and Salter works from notes and tapes of McCain speaking on his own history and worldview--a kind of oral presentation that Salter organizes and McCain edits carefully.

Members of Congress. It is an amazing fact that this presidential election is the first one in American history in which two members of Congress are running against each other. And two senators, no less! History shows that members of Congress rarely win; John F. Kennedy was the last member to win the presidency, and that was in 1960.