FACTBOX: In U.S. politics, it's all relative

(Reuters) - U.S. politicians often try to invoke their humble origins and talk about their families as a way to connect with regular voters. Here are some examples:

DEMOCRATIC SEN. HILLARY CLINTON

* Although she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, reported making $109 million since 2000, Clinton often speaks about her working class roots.

* During the long campaign in Pennsylvania, she told stories about her grandfather, who went to work in the lace mills when he was 11 years old. Clinton said her grandfather grew up in blue-collar Scranton and worked in the mills six days a week for 54 years.

* During a campaign stop in Wisconsin, a state where many voters support gun ownership rights, Clinton said her father had taught her to shoot and she went hunting with him when she was young. She said she had shot a duck as well as a lot of tin cans and targets.

DEMOCRATIC SEN. BARACK OBAMA

* The son of a Kenyan father and mother from Kansas, Obama -- who reported making $4.2 million in 2007 -- often speaks about his parent's humble beginnings.

* His father grew up herding goats with his own father, in a village in Kenya. He won a scholarship to study in Hawaii, where he met his wife then went on to pursue his Ph.D. at Harvard University. He separated from Obama's mother when Barack Obama was 2 and returned to Kenya where he worked as a government economist.

* Another strong presence in Obama's life is his wife, Michelle, a Princeton- and Harvard-educated lawyer who has at times been criticized for being too outspoken.

REPUBLICAN JOHN MCCAIN

* McCain, who at 71 would be the oldest American ever elected to a first presidential term, often points to his spry 96-year-old mother when skeptics worry that he might be too old.

* Though he reported a combined 2006/2007 income of only $474,104, McCain will not disclose his wife's income. Cindy McCain inherited a multimillion-dollar Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship -- one of the country's largest -- from her father.

* Cindy McCain has been candid about a stroke she suffered in 2004 and a former addiction to prescription painkillers.

* His daughter Meghan and two friends have joined McCain on the campaign trail and are blogging all about it on www.mccainblogette.com -- "musings and pop culture on the political trail."

(Reporting by Deborah Charles; editing by David Wiessler)