Does the Republican Party have any rising stars?

[starroute]

I was thinking about Barack Obama . . . and looking at the lineup someone posted of speakers at the Republican convention . . . and it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn't think of a single prominent Republican under the age of 50. Most of the familiar names were born in the 40's -- Frist (1952) was the youngest I could find.

Well, there's Rick Santorum (1958), but he's not so much prominent as he is a bad joke.

So my question is . . . are there any up-and-coming Republicans (age 35-45, say) that I just don't know about? Governors, big-city mayors, junior Senators, anything? And if there are, could any of them even begin to pass as centrists?

I'm interested in the answers. It could say a lot about where this country might be eight years from now.