The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as John McCain and Barack Obama were formally nominated   as candidates of the two major parties. This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates.  The big question for voters, as they face both an economic downturn and international threats, is: who will they elect? A young first-term senator promising change and new ideas, or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick  ?     American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama. He has a white mother from theprefix = st1 /USand a black father fromKenyawho left the family when Obama was very young. He spent part of his youth inIndonesia.     His supporters say Obama's childhood gives him the advantage to repair the recent damage done toAmerica's image abroad. His opponents focus on his inexperience, noting he hasn't finished his first term in the Senate.     However, McCain has a very different life story. He grew up in a Navy family and was a pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia, McCain's plane was shot down overVietnamand he became a prisoner of war. McCain could have been released if he _ Americabut he refused and so was held for five years. So in the end, the election may hinge on (...) several factors that are hard to judge: Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters? Will working-class whites who tended to support his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all, will swing   voters be more drawn to Obama's vision   or to McCain's experience?  Whatever happens, one thing is clear: Whoever walks into the White House on January 20, 2009, will find enormous challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office, both at home and abroad. The appeal in Obama as a presidential candidate lies in   _  .
his multi-cultural background his belief in tradition his inexperience in politics his fantastic promises