The presumptive US presidential nominees, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama , are looking forward to being confirmed at their parties' conventions.
The race for the White House will then enter its most intensive phase and the candidates and their policies will come under greater scrutiny than ever.
Mike Gallagher finds out what makes these two remarkable individuals tick and explores what their greatest influences have been.
People who know them also have their say about their good qualities and their weaknesses in a two-part series that lifts the lid on the men who would be president.
Programme Two - John McCain
John McCain also turns out to have issues surrounding his father, who was a four-star Admiral in the US Navy.
Living up to his father's achievements seems to have driven McCain all his life, and sustained him through the trauma of five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
McCain talks of honour and patriotic duty being his main objectives in public life. But he also admits that he has a legendary short fuse.
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