(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-06 22:37

WASHINGTON --  A possible match-up in the November US presidential election would pit a crusty old politician known for blowing his top against a first-term lawmaker seen as charismatic yet largely untested.

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (L), with his wife Cindy acknowledge the cheers from the audience after clinching the Republican presidential nomination at his Ohio and Texas primary election night rally in Dallas, Texas March 4, 2008. [Agencies]

In that scenario Republican John McCain of Arizona would face Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois.

Or McCain would go against the tenacious, politically savvy, two-term Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

Whoever wins the Democratic race -- McCain sewed up the Republican nomination on Tuesday -- it will be the first time two sitting members of the Senate ever face each other in the general election for the presidency.

That adds to the possible firsts in this White House race -- McCain, who turns 72 in August, would be the oldest person ever to be elected for a first term as US president, Obama would be the first black president and Clinton would be the first woman president. One of them would also be the first sitting senator elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Inside the 100-member US Senate, a clubby institution often referred to as "the world's most deliberative body," all three have reputations for reaching out to members of both parties -- though McCain far more forcefully.

Obama, 46, who is leading 60-year-old Clinton in a drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination, would provide the starkest contrast with McCain.

Dubbed "Senator Hothead," McCain has challenged, bullied or even cursed lawmakers over a host of issues the past two decades -- from cutting wasteful spending to reducing the influence of money in politics to revamping US immigration laws.

"A lot of McCain's colleagues just don't like him, Democrats and Republicans," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

"I think there are two reasons. One, they felt the wrath of his temper ... or two, he's challenged them on matters they didn't want to be challenged on," Ornstein said.

Obama has generally deferred to his elders on Capitol Hill since he arrived in the Senate in 2005 as a rising political star -- one seen as liberal, amiable, and a powerful speaker.

"He kept his head down, worked hard, didn't try to use his star power to big-foot any issue and went out of his way not to tick anybody off," said a Democratic leadership aide.

Obama soon drew McCain's ire. They clashed in 2006 over a bill to tighten controls on lobbying Congress. The Arizona Republican accused the Illinois Democrat of "disingenuousness." Obama denied it and suggested McCain had overreacted.

More recently, McCain, a Vietnam war hero, accused Obama of being naive in opposing the Iraq war. Obama fired back by charging that McCain had recklessly helped lead the United States into the Iraq war.

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