In his Capitol Hill office in Washington, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an avid reader, has books including a favorite, For

In the office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Capitol Hill in Washington, is the wall

Washington ? By their offices ye shall know them.

The personalities and personal histories of John McCain and Barack Obama are as evident in the artwork, books and mementoes in their Senate offices as in any words they may utter.

McCain’s office oozes comfy clutter and informality: random piles of books, a fortune-cookie message taped to the desk, an abundance of tchotchkes and bric-a-brac.

Obama’s office feels more like an art gallery: precisely placed objects, sparsely adorned surfaces, clean lines, choreographed displays.

Both offices show their occupants’ sentimental streak: McCain has a picture of his favorite high school teacher and a 1904 Navy register that lists his grandfather as a midshipman. Obama has a photo of the cliff in Hawaii where his mother’s ashes were scattered into the Pacific and a tiger-beating stick from his grandmother’s village in Kenya.

A walking tour of the Senate offices of the two presidential candidates tells a tale of their occupants.

McCain’s office

The Arizona senator’s office was decorated by his wife, Cindy, when he moved into his current suite in the Russell Office Building in 1995. She shipped in rugged wooden furniture, Southwestern artwork, a rocking chair, even the brass chandeliers.

Since then the decor has, well, evolved.

Family photos proliferate in haphazard abundance. Gifts from foreign leaders -an antique sword, an 18th century muzzleloader, a knife and sheath – are propped here and there, booty from overseas trips. Random stuffed animals are part of the scene. McCain, an avid reader, has books stacked seven or eight high along the length of a window sill. They include “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” his favorite.

Many of the items in the office are trinkets that friends and visitors have handed the Republican senator.

Taped to one corner of McCain’s Senate desk is a message from a fortune cookie that clearly struck a chord: “Your principles mean more to you than any money or success.”

Obama’s office

Obama has been a senator only since 2005, and his office in the Hart Office Building has a fresh, clean look to it.

“He played a big part in putting it all together,” said Ashley Tate-Gilmore, the Illinois senator’s executive assistant – right down to selecting the straw-colored tint of the walls and carpeting.

The decor is carefully choreographed. When an assistant shifted the location of one painting while Obama was away, the senator had it moved back.

“He’s tidy. It stays tidy,” Tate-Gilmore said.

Obama has a “wall of heroes” containing historic photos of those the senator admires. Abe Lincoln is there, as well as Gandhi with his spinning wheel, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. The arrangement includes a framed original program from the 1963 March on Washington where King delivered his “I have a dream” speech. There also is a framed copy of the Life magazine cover from 1965 showing civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala. It is signed by John Lewis, a protester who was bludgeoned at Selma and now is a member of Congress.

Obama’s office is as notable for what’s missing as for what’s there.

The credenza behind his desk contains a handful of file folders in one drawer, but otherwise is completely empty. Not many knickknacks: To avoid any ethical problems, Obama declines to accept most gifts, even the trinkets that visitors and admirers offer.