A personal look at the candidates

Ron Burgundy · 04-29-2007, 09:07 AM

AP - The lineup of presidential candidates includes a hotshot poker player, impersonators of the famous and infamous, an aspiring center fielder for the New York Yankees and a guy who's been too busy to take his Christmas lights down.

Politics is what these candidates do and a huge piece of who they are. But like anyone else, they have idle dreams, home tasks that need tending, TV to watch on the fly, tunes to help them through their day, and even the occasional wish to step into a whole new skin.

John McCain (news, bio, voting record) has pets to feed — 22 of them at last count.

Barak Obama is the pokerface in the race. Rudy Giuliani does a mean deadpan impression of mob bosses, from his days as a phone-tapping prosecutor listening to them talk about mundane things and murder. And Mike Huckabee performs dozens of VIP voice impersonations when he's not politicking or playing bass in his rock band, Capitol Offense.

So goes the personal side of the men and the woman running to be president. It's a side The Associated Press explores in a series of questions to the candidates about their backgrounds, traits and tastes.

In the first question of the series, AP asked the candidates what they'd want to be doing if they weren't doing politics. Their answers:

DEMOCRATS

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: Architect

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: "Continue to work for causes and issues I care about, in a setting like a university or foundation."

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: Teacher

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: Mill supervisor

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Astronaut

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record): Architect

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: Center field, New York Yankees

REPUBLICANS

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record): Farmer

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Sports announcer