AGE: 71
OCCUPATION: Arizona Senator, Republican Presidential candidate
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 3
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 2
PRO: Never give this man up for dead. Bouncing back from a bankrupt, moribund campaign, McCain's worked overtime to recapture his old, straight-talk mojo and rally a leery GOP around him. Meanwhile, his Democratic challengers are busy bloodying each other, giving him time to strategize and raise much-needed funds.
CON: Campaign finance legerdemain and suspicious associations with lobbyists — with lurid, adulterous overtones — sully his image as a maverick reformer with a zero-tolerance policy for corruption. And lately, "straight talk" has been sounding suspiciously like "stay the course," on everything from Iraq to the economy.