DES MOINES -- More than a half-dozen possible aspirants for the 2008 presidential nominations gathered here last week for the summer meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA). Notable among them were Republicans Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, George Pataki of New York, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, along with Democrats Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Mark Warner of Virginia and Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

But the most intriguing was a man whose name is probably even more unfamiliar, Mike Huckabee, the Republican governor of Arkansas.