NEW YORK — Lindsey Graham vs. Mark Sanford for president in 2008?

Don’t laugh, it could happen.

Given that 2008 could be wide open, there is a steady hum about future candidates among those gathered in New York for the Republican National Convention, which closed Thursday night.

They include South Carolina’s soon-to-be-senior U.S. senator and one of his best pals, the current occupant of the S.C. Governor’s Mansion.

Graham’s name has been mentioned as a possible candidate by The New York Times and Congressional Quarterly.

The senator also will make his second trip to Iowa Oct. 2 to address a Christian Coalition leadership conference. Three months ago, he was the keynote speaker at the annual Iowa Republican Convention.

Iowa holds the nation’s first presidential caucus.

Sanford has been in New York meeting with prominent business leaders and doing some networking. He spoke to a group called the Club for Growth, whose members meet with potential candidates, grade them and decide whether to support them with money.

Both Graham and Sanford downplay the White House talk — they have to.

No one talks publicly about seeking the White House. It would be considered bad form to overlook the current battle between President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry.

The GOP convention is all about 2004 and the re-election of President Bush.

But there is also a distinct whiff of 2008 about the gathering as possible contenders for the nomination in four years take the opportunity to make connections, establish their national credentials, and cater to those who have a say in the primaries.

Graham said he is “flattered” by all the talk that people think he has a future beyond the Senate.

“If you want to be promotable,” he said, “do the best you can in the job you’ve got.

“That’s been my philosophy in life. Focus on the moment. Do as good as you can. Make yourself promotable if that comes along.”

State GOP chairman Katon Dawson said Sanford has a web of connections across the country that is “quite remarkable.”

“I’m in awe of the network of people that he has all over the country, not only in personal friends but in his ability to fund-raise. Mark has raised money in 20 to 30 states for himself and for the Republican Party.”

Dawson said Sanford has a lot of support out there.

“Mark has got that kind of star power, that kind of stuff,” he says. “Mark has a presence on the national stage. He’s a rising star.”

Sanford brushes it all off, saying a White House bid “is the last thing on my mind.”

The convention is fertile territory for raising one’s profile, and the candidates-in-waiting are not missing any opportunities.

Graham has been in demand for TV appearances here. He was interviewed by The Washington Post editorial board and the Newsweek magazine editors.

Supporters of both Graham and Sanford say they are really positioning themselves to be somebody’s running mate in 2008.

Should Graham or Sanford choose to seek the presidency, he would be the first South Carolinian to do so since U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings’ failed bid for the Democratic nomination in 1984.

Other South Carolinians who have sought the highest office were the late Strom Thurmond, who ran in 1948 as a segregationist Dixiecrat; John C. Calhoun, who cut an Electoral College deal with John Quincy Adams and became vice president; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who lost three bids as a Federalist candidate in 1800, 1804 and 1808; and Thomas Pinckney, who lost in 1796.

Other names being whispered — some more loudly than others — as potential presidential candidates for 2008 are: U.S. Sens. Bill Frist of Tennessee, John McCain of Arizona, George Allen of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and George Pataki of New York; and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.