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John McCain's Straight-Talk Express, now a recognized part of America's political vocabulary, epitomizes the Arizona senator's against-the-grain image.

But when a 49-year-old McCain launched his bid for the U.S. Senate in February 1986, the imagery wasn't quite so low-budget.

McCain rolled-out a bright yellow-and-red locomotive with a three-car train for a "whistle-stop" run from Tucson to Mesa, greeting supporters at the Amtrak station with an introduction from a 25-piece brass band. Tickets were $1,000.

It was actually Richard Kimball, his Democratic opponent who used the bus, charging just $10.

The imagery fit into the narrative of the campaign — the long-awaited race to replace Barry Goldwater. The well-funded and organized McCain against the often quirky Kimball.

McCain — then a two-term member of the U.S. House who surprised many by winning that seat four years earlier — beat Kimball in a landslide. His Senate career, however, would often prove rocky.

There was the Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal, which dogs McCain to this day and some say changed his attitude forever. He's been almost constantly at odds with conservatives in his own party. And an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2000 nearly soured him to any future White House aspirations.

As Goldwater's replacement, McCain inherited an instant national profile some say has been a major plus for Arizona.

Others, though, say McCain has been distant, and they complain that his disdain for congressional earmarks has cost Arizona millions in federal dollars.

All the while, his un-politician style — complete with off-color jokes and "straight-talk" — earned him devoted followers as well as ardent enemies.

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain leaves the impression he didn't take the race against Kimball very seriously in '86, calling him "a nice man" but "not the first-tier candidate the Democrats had hoped to field."

Democrats had pinned their hopes on Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who opted instead for a presidential bid.

McCain's presidential rival, Barack Obama, hinted during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention about making McCain's temperament an issue in the race for the White House.

And it was in his race against Kimball that McCain began to demonstrate his sometimes jarring humor that has become a trademark — and often a liability.

A self-described "wise-ass," McCain's biggest fumble was a joke about the Leisure World retirement community, which he called "Seizure World," where "97 percent of the people who live there come out to vote, while the other 3 percent are in intensive care."

Democrats attacked.

McCain also often overreacted to Kimball's criticism of him, once saying Kimball had run "one of the most sloppy and dirty campaigns in Arizona history" after a fairly generic criticism that McCain — who got much of his campaign fund that year from Charles Keating's organization and military contractors — was taking special interest money.

Even so, on Election Day, McCain beat Kimball by 20 points. And Kimball told the Star in 2006 he retreated to Mexico, "enormously depressed."

The Democrat would go on to form Project Vote Smart, a voter resource organization, a concept he said was born out of his frustration over his race against McCain.

McCain eventually joined its board. But in April of this year, after McCain declined to participate in the organization's survey of candidates, he was booted. A spokesman with Project Vote Smart said Kimball does not do interviews about McCain.

McCain's prominence in Washington would rise only after winning that Senate seat.

In 1988, he was considered as a vice presidential pick, further adding to his national profile. But he was also making enemies, many in his own party.

He's managed to consolidate conservative support in this year's presidential bid. But even as late as last year, Arizona Republicans were feuding with him.

State Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen publicly criticized McCain's support for an immigration compromise last summer, even holding up a drawing one Republican had delivered to party headquarters of a middle finger sticking up.

"This is basically the outlook that many of our party faithful are feeling right now about the Republican Party," Pullen said at the time.

State Rep. Russell Pearce, a hero to the conservative movement in the state, called for McCain to resign if he wasn't going to show up to vote on every issue in the U.S. Senate.

But others, even those who have found themselves to the right of McCain over the years, have put aside their differences with the senator on such issues as tax cuts and the environment.

McCain's fellow Arizona senator in those early days, Demo-crat Dennis DeConcini, wrote in his own 2006 memoir, "From the Center of the Aisle," when McCain won Goldwater's seat, "I felt he had a difficulty assuming the role of junior senator."

"At formal sittings, I sensed he resented this situation. I assumed that he was immensely competitive."

"He wanted to defeat the other side of any issue," DeConcini wrote. "This trait has been a double-edged sword for my former colleague."

But many describe that as more of McCain's gusto, a trait that's made him appealing and help him win his three Senate elections since '86 handily.

"He spoke his mind," says former Southern Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe, recalling an interaction a decade ago.

It was 1998. McCain had just easily won another election. Kolbe had survived a tough race against former Tucson Mayor Tom Volgy.

He met McCain in Phoenix, weeks before the Clinton impeachment vote, and standing in line for coffee, a woman approached McCain.

"I'm a supporter of yours," she said. "I think you're wonderful. I just hope you won't vote against President Clinton."

McCain, Kolbe recalls, turned to the woman and looked her in eye: "Oh, so you think lying under oath is OK, do you?"

Kolbe and the woman were shocked. "You bet I'm going to vote for impeachment," McCain said. Laughing now, Kolbe said the exchange was classic McCain.

"I had just fought like hell to keep my seat," Kolbe said. "And here he was telling this woman exactly how he felt."

It was early in McCain's Senate career that it all almost came crashing down.

McCain, DeConcini and three other senators were accused of improperly aiding Keating, a Phoenix real estate mogul and chairman of a failed savings-and-loan operation.

Keating donated more than $1 million combined to the five senators and later asked them to get regulators off his back — a move that resulted in an expensive failure that cost taxpayers.

In the end, McCain was cleared of wrongdoing. Still, the incident changed both men. DeConcini was near the end of his career, though. McCain was just starting.

"I think that was a very searing experience for him and made him realize he had to keep his personal life separate from his political life," Kolbe said. "It left a very bitter taste in his mouth."

It also provided the template for championing campaign finance reform.

His unsuccessful presidential run in 2000 would also transform McCain.

The tone of primary-season debates and commercials between McCain and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush makes this year's race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton seem tame.

McCain's 2002 memoir is striking in that he didn't intend, at the time, to run for president again. And perhaps as a result, it's filled with rich detail and self-admissions.

Though his campaign slogan this year is "Country First," McCain writes in the book: "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believe in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism.

"In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president," he wrote. "I was 62 years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."

With McCain now his party's nominee, Arizona Democrats have become more vocal in criticizing his anti-earmark stance and what they say is his detached relationship with the state and his constituents. Arizona is last in the amount of money per capita from the federal government.

"I grew up in politics watching the handiwork of Carl Hayden and even Barry Goldwater, both of whom were so entrenched in the Arizona community and Arizona culture that everything they did on Capitol Hill reflected back on Arizona," says state Sen. Debbie McCune Davis

She is a long-time Phoenix Democratic legislator who has known Cindy McCain, Sen. McCain's wife, since childhood.

"It seemed like our team that we sent to Washington was more focused on Arizona in those years than they are now."

But Arizona's other U.S. senator, Republican Jon Kyl, says that, in fact, McCain transformed politics in the state.

"He really changed how politics was done," Kyl said. "He was active and energetic. He came home every weekend, which really began a modern era of representation here."

Kolbe, who basically did the same thing before retiring from Congress in 2006, agreed.

In later years, he said, there is no doubt McCain took on more of a national profile.

"He has not really been an Arizona legislator by and large," Kolbe said. "He really transcended the state."

But Kolbe said it has not come at a loss to Arizonans. "John was never going to be the person who just focused on bringing home the bacon," he said. "That just wasn't John's style."