Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona

Education

• Believes all federal financial support should be predicated on giving parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools to ones that meet higher standards.

• Supports the Troops-to-Teachers Act, a program to train veterans to become teachers, and introduced legislation to extend the program.

Source: McCain campaign here and here

Estate Tax

• Would allow heirs to exempt $5-million from estate taxes, up from $2-million now (both amounts doubled for couples), and would cut the tax rate for amounts above that from 45 percent to 15 percent.

• Voted for an amendment in 2007 (S. Amdt. 507) to raise the exemption to $5-million and cut the tax rate to 35 percent. (Amendment defeated.)

Source: McCain campaign

Health

• Would promote federal research into autism, promote early screening, and identify better treatment options for the disorder. Co-sponsored the Combating Autism Act of 2006.

Source: McCain campaign

International Aid

• Would create a League of Democracies that could "act where the U.N. fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur. It could join to fight the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and fashion better policies to confront the crisis of our environment."

• Would set a goal of eradicating malaria in Africa.

Source: McCain campaign here and here

National Service

• Joined 42 members of the Senate who wrote a letter in 2003 asking President Bush to request additional money for AmeriCorps following a fiscal crisis that forced the program to slash its budget.

Source: Letter from 43 senators to the president on July 17, 2003

Poverty

• Voted to create the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997. Voted against a 2007 bill to expand it by $35-billion over five years in 2007, saying he was concerned the program had expanded beyond Congress's original intent.

Source: McCain statement

Religious Organizations

• Wants religious groups to have "at least the same standing as they have now" in competing for federal grants to provide social services.

Source: Christianity Today

About the Candidate's Background

Donations to Charity

• In 2007, John McCain contributed $105,467 of his $405,409 income to charity, according to his tax returns, which represented 26 percent of his total income. In 2006, he donated 18 percent — $64,695 of $358,414 in income — to charitable efforts.

• According to Mr. McCain's campaign, most of his charitable contributions were made through the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation, which supports organizations that work "for the spiritual, educational, and medical needs of the community." Supported organizations include Operation Smile, which repairs facial abnormalities in young people, and the Halo Trust, which removes land mines.

• Cindy McCain, who donated the same amount to charity as her husband over the last two years, did not release her tax returns. An heir to a beer-distribution company, her wealth is estimated at $100-million.

Charity Affiliations

• Donated royalties from his books to charity, as well as earnings from a 2005 movie about his captivity in North Vietnam.

• Campaign Web site includes a page with a note to "serve a cause greater than our own self-interest" and links to causes Mr. McCain has supported, including America Supports You, an effort to thank U.S. troops, and the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, which helps families of troops who have been killed in service.

Spouse's Nonprofit Interests

• Cindy McCain founded and ran the American Voluntary Medical Team, which provided medical care to poor children worldwide, from 1988 to 1995. She currently serves on the boards of Grateful Nation Montana, which provides scholarships to children of Montana soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Halo Trust, which removes landmines; and Operation Smile, which provides facial reconstruction surgery to children in poor countries. She is on leave from a position on the board of CARE, the international humanitarian-aid group.