To date, most of the White House ’08 hype has focused on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and some has surrounded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but now, unexpectedly, seven other women are finding themselves talked about as presidential contenders.

The magazine Pink has highlighted nine women in its August-September issue that it says have a “good shot at the presidency.”

Along with Clinton and Rice, the list includes a few surprises, such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), and Heather Wilson (R-N.M.). Also featured are Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D).

Adding a little twist, the profiles of the White House-caliber women include “success secrets.”

For instance, Wilson’s success secret is to be “tough-minded but soft-hearted with a compassion for people and their struggles. Hutchison’s is her “willingness to pick myself up after a setback and keep on going,” something she showed when law firms were reluctant to hire her out of law school because of her sex.

While Pink may not be the first place people turn to for political analysis – its monthly editor’s note was an essay about menopause – that could change as more Americans become comfortable with powerful women. The mag cites a  recent CBS News/New York Times poll showing that 92 percent of adults say they would vote for a female presidential candidate from their party.

The names of nerds or nerdy names?

Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) is taking hits for something he can’t control: his middle name. Allen’s Democratic challenger this year set about to referring to Allen sneeringly in press releases as “George Felix Allen Jr.,” a ploy to draw attention to the senator’s quirky middle name, one more readily associated with the animated “Felix the Cat” or the Odd Couple’s Felix Unger than with great statesmen.

Allen isn’t the only lawmaker stuck with a clunky moniker. Former Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin never used his given name, the nerdy Wilbert. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) both dropped the hoary Clarence in favor of their middle names. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) eschewed alliteration when he dropped his first name, Alan. And Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) had to put a macron over the “a” in his surname to remind people that it rhymes with Sabo.

But perhaps the most unfortunate given name in politics is Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D-N.D.) first name, the singular Gaylord. Yes, the French appellation that was mercilessly ridiculed in the 2000 hit comedy “Meet the Parents” in which Ben Stiller plays hapless male nurse Gaylord Focker. Conrad never uses it. Even his financial disclosure forms list merely “G. Kent Conrad.”

When Conrad was born in 1948, the name was nearing the end of four decades of popularity, ranking 566th among male baby names in the 1940s, just two slots ahead of one of the few choices that would have been worse: Adolph.

Lamont and his anti-Mets crusade

The hotly contested Connecticut Senate race reveals another fault line in state politics – the Red Sox/Yankees/Mets divide. How can a populace peacefully co-exist where it can’t even agree on what baseball team to root for?

Put Democratic nominee Ned Lamont in the Yankees camp, which by definition means he’s anti-Red Sox and anti-Mets.

At a carnival in Orange, Conn., two days before his primary win against Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Lamont confronted a young fan who made the mistake of wearing a Mets hat in his presence.

“Did somebody tell you to wear that?” Lamont asked the bewildered boy.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a West Point graduate and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is among the lawmakers who travel most frequently to Iraq and Afghanistan. But Reed may have to cut down the amount of time he spends in combat zones because he is expecting to soon become a new father.

Reed’s wife Julia, 40, whom he married in April of last year, is due to deliver the couple’s first child in December.

“As my family responsibility increases, it might be a factor,” said Reed of taking fewer future trips to global hot spots.

His wife may have more of a direct say in the matter than most other Senate spouses. That’s because she is an Interparliamentary Coordinator in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the agency that handles the Senate’s international travel and contact with foreign governments.

But Reed said his wife knew what she was getting into when they married. After all, they first met on a trip to Afghanistan in 2002.

“I think she understood I’d being doing some of that stuff,” said Reed.

“So far it’s going well,” Reed said of juggling his new family duties with his Senate responsibilities. “She’s been extremely understanding.”

If Reed, who turns 57 in November, needs any advice on becoming a father later in life, he might turn to Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who became a first time father at the same age in 2001.

Or he could solicit parenting tips from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who adopted a baby girl in 2001, also at the age of 57.

Alexander Bolton, Josephine Hearn, and Patrick Ryan contributed to this page