I and my readers had such fun with my provocative column suggesting a Nobel Peace Prize for President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that I'm ready to try another one: Laura Bush for president in 2008.

The Bush and Blair column drew as much reader reaction as I can remember in many years of column writing.

At one end of the spectrum, Bush supporters thought it was a nifty idea. I never heard the broadcast, but many readers called or wrote to tell me that even Sean Hannity commented charmingly on the "idea from this feller in Salt Lake City" and said "the country needs more thinking like this."

By contrast, at the other end of the spectrum, Bush critics thought it was a terrible suggestion. One of my perennial correspondents, who has routinely suggested that Bush is motivated by Satanic influences, said he was "truly sickened by the proposal." Others suggested I should resign from clubs I don't even belong to.

Now to Laura. Her ratings in the public opinion polls are currently higher than the president's. She's just come off a performance at the Gridiron dinner in Washington that proved she has an even funnier comedic flair than her husband. On her recent trip through the Middle East she showed that she has a mind of her own and can sometimes — with civility — take positions different from the current president of the United States.

Still not persuaded? Think the wife of a former president shouldn't, or couldn't, take a crack at running for the White House? Well, Hillary Clinton is the wife of a former president and a lot of people think she's a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2008. What a contest that would be: Laura vs. Hillary. Choose one for first woman president of the United States. What a campaign Karl Rove would make of that.

Of course, Laura would have to elbow out Bill Frist and John McCain, maybe even brother-in-law Jeb Bush, as well as a string of other aspiring males to get the Republican nomination. But I suspect that beneath that poised and charming exterior there are nerves of steel and a canny political sense where issues of great import are involved.

She certainly displayed cool nerve in the midst of rambunctious demonstrating crowds during her five-day visit to the Middle East last week. She also shrewdly pitched the president's agenda of freedom and democracy to the audience which could perhaps do more than any other to further that agenda throughout the Arab lands. That audience, of course, is the women of the region. In a male-dominated society, they are traditionally disenfranchised, relegated to inferior status, their educational potential and influence for constructive change untapped and dismissed. But if encouraged and unleashed, what a force they could be.