Getting Personal With the Candidates

Jan. 2, 2008— -- As part of the "Meet the Candidates" series, Charles Gibson took us inside the candidates' private lives, letting us get to know the people behind the public figures campaigning across the country. In tonight's segment, he asked the candidates "What's your guiltiest pleasure?"

Watch "World News With Charles Gibson" tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET for the full report.

One of Sen. Joe Biden's, D-Del., favorite stops on the campaign trail may have been Le Mars, Iowa, the self-proclaimed ice-cream capital of the world. He confessed to Gibson that his guiltiest pleasure is "Ice cream. A lot of it. A lot of it."

Whose office is most likely to be filled with boxes of Montecristo cigars? Former Sen. Fred Thompson's. "Well, I have been known to chew on a cigar of questionable origin," he said in an interview.

Thompson's not the only one chomping down on the occasional Cuban cigar. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that his guiltiest pleasures were cigars and chocolate.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also share Giuliani's craving for cacao.

When Gibson asked Clinton about her most sinful indulgence, Clinton said, "Chocolate. And sometimes more than I should ever have." When asked what kind of chocolate, the candidate said, "Just about every form -- dark chocolate more than milk chocolate, if you're going to think about sending me any."

Romney got more even specific. "M&Ms, Hershey bars, Reese's peanut butter cups, Nutella, Nutella and peanut butter on toast," he said, "I mean, these are some of the great luxuries in life. Chocolate milk."

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., would trade chocolate milk for a different kind of guilty pleasure.

"Oh, God, I love a good wine, probably too much -- probably know I shouldn't." Dodd said.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards had to think about his guilty pleasure before he admitted to "sleeping late, which I don't do very well these days. But sleeping late. Sometimes if I get exhausted enough, I can sleep late in the morning. Even if my kids want me to get up."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has downgraded his former guilty pleasure of smoking to a less-dangerous addiction, thanks to the encouragement of his wife, Michelle.

"Well, now that I have stopped sneaking the occasional cigarette, which made me feel tremendously guilty and my wife was constantly on me about it, I suppose it's SportsCenter. I know I should go to sleep. But somehow I find myself being able to watch highlights over and over again."

And what does Michelle Obama think of his substitute guilty pleasure?

"My wife thinks it's a sickness."