If formidable adversaries square off in 2008 …

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maneuvers through Asia, she stands to bolster the global credentials that could provide an assist in 2008. That is, if she changes her mind during the next few years and tilts her long-term ambitions toward the White House instead of the National Football League.

The Asia-Pacific region looms larger than any other for the United States. The coming decades could well evolve into the “Pacific Century,” or they could devolve into the “Era of Asian Mayhem.”

India, Pakistan, China and North Korea (it appears) all have coaxed the nuclear genie out of the bottle. As Japan struggles to assert itself regionally and internationally, a threat — or worse, an attack — from Pyongyang could spark Tokyo’s joining the nuclear club and usher in a new period of heightened Japanese nationalism. Taiwan continues to flirt with the idea of independence, despite China’s unmistakable promise that such a decision would lead to war. Afghanistan still struggles to distance itself from the Taliban/al-Qaida tyranny. And a renewed conflict on the Korean peninsula would relegate the 1950s war there to dust-up status.

But for all the challenges those situations would pose, Rice could face an even more formidable adversary in another female political figure, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has expressed her own denials about the possibility of a 2008 presidential run. Clinton has signaled more interest in launching a re-election bid for the U.S. Senate from New York. In truth, any hint of presidential aspirations by Clinton for 2008 could draw a torrent of Republican opposition, perhaps even powerful enough to knock her Senate bid off course.

Well, Rice and Clinton — along with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, for that matter — protest too much against speculation about their potential candidacies. I believe all of them would love to occupy the office. If invited to run, each (with maybe the exception of Powell) would, and if elected, each would serve. In the realm of the American political experience, could anyone imagine a more closely observed, electric and historic campaign than one with Rice as the Republican standard-bearer, Clinton for the Democrats and Powell as an independent?

In that three-way race, my selection would be easy: Powell all the way for his deep, sincere roots in politics’ sensible center; tremendous intellect and strong values; vision and creativity; keen understanding of the ties that bind and reinforce the global community; and sweeping successes in politics and the military.

But let’s return the focus to the more likely scenario: a Rice-Clinton match. Would Rice — who has played in the political big leagues on and off for more than 15 years, and who has been termed by some the world’s most powerful woman — deserve the nod? Or should it fall to Clinton, who has worked her way to ever-higher levels of political involvement over more than a quarter-century in public life, and who enjoys enviable status as an international figure?

I am reaching out to readers on this one. Assume this is 2008, and the choices are Rice and Clinton. Which one would you choose? In Asia or elsewhere in the world, which woman would you rather have representing the United States? E-mail your preferences to me at jbersia@orlandosentinel.com, and I’ll share some of the best comments in a future column.

John C. Bersia is an editorial writer for the Orlando Sentinel and a professor at the University of Central Florida.