Biker Babbitt

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Intense but soft spoken, self-confident but unassuming, Babbitt can seem aloof and cool, yet he is seldom arrogant. The scion of a wealthy mercantile family in Arizona, he ruefully describes himself as "hopelessly overeducated." (He received a geology degree from Notre Dame, studied in England under the prestigious Marshall Scholars program and earned a law degree from Harvard.) In private conversation, he shows an exceptionally nimble, curious and original mind.

Respectfully but somewhat tepidly received by most audiences last week, Babbitt seems to lack the ability to stir up a partisan crowd. The bilingual Governor actually seems more warm and relaxed giving speeches in Spanish, as he did to farm workers in Des Moines. "If we can just get him to talk like that in English," said a Babbitt aide, "we'll have it made."

The Babbitt family will be traveling widely during the coming months. With his penchant for combining politics and athletics, the Governor plans to visit New England's White Mountains in the fall to ski the legendary Tuckerman Ravine. The daredevil slope is in New Hampshire, the state that just happens to offer the second presidential preference vote of 1988, right after Iowa.