For anyone even remotely interested in politics, now is a great time to live in Wisconsin.

It isn?t every week that nationally recognized senators, governors and even a former president descend on the state as if it were the only one that mattered.

And never again will a Bears fan draw 20,000 people to the Kohl Center.

This week certainly is a special time to be in the state of Wisconsin, as two former Arkansas governors ? who happened to grow up in the same little town ? visited the state Thursday.

More than 2,000 people, many of whom were University of Wisconsin students, saw Bill Clinton speak at the Stock Pavillion on campus ? a historic venue not just for the cows, but also for hosting Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and William Howard Taft.

Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Republican trying to take down frontrunner Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., spoke to a smaller crowd of a couple hundred at the Concourse Hotel.

Clinton toured the state Thursday stumping for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. Two-thirds of the former first family have now stopped on campus as Chelsea Clinton visited Monday.

The candidate herself, who will be in Wisconsin Saturday through Tuesday, has pledged to visit Madison sometime before Tuesday?s primary.

All about the benjamins?

Meanwhile, the former president told the crowd in Madison that much of Obama’s recent success since Super Tuesday has come when his wife’s campaign ?ran out of money and had to let all these last states go.?

Since then, though, the campaign raised more than $13 million through an online campaign.

The Clinton campaign is now focusing on not only Wisconsin but on big primaries on March 4, including Texas and Ohio, where the former president said she leads in the polls.

?We need you, we need more volunteers, we need to call everyone in the state,? Clinton said. ?We need to make these arguments; you need to tell people you’re for her because she’s in the solutions business and so are you.?

Much of Clinton’s hourlong speech focused on the issues at hand this primary, and the former president distinguished his wife from Obama.

Clinton, for example, supports a universal health care plan for everyone in the United States and says she has ?the most aggressive? plan to combat home mortgage foreclosures.

The state battle between Obama and Clinton appears to be in Obama?s favor right now, according to several statewide polls, but it was only last month when Clinton won in New Hampshire, despite every survey going against her.

Obama filled the Kohl Center to capacity Tuesday night, trying to pledge he takes Wisconsin seriously, as he will be back again today and tomorrow.

Huckabee forging ahead

As for Huckabee, the man who ?majored in miracles, not math,? he is banking on McCain backers staying home Tuesday while every last one of his supporters goes out to vote.

McCain, for his part, responded to Huckabee?s statewide tour by scheduling several rallies of his own. He will visit Oshkosh and Milwaukee today.

Huckabee, who trails severely in delegates and in statewide polls, desperately needs to pick up Wisconsin but refused to call the state a must-win.

?We want to win Wisconsin, we’re here to win Wisconsin, we’re spending a lot of time in Wisconsin,? Huckabee said. ?We wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t important to us. We’d just bypass it all together.?

Huckabee appeals to fundamental conservatives who back constitutional amendments banning abortion and gay marriage ? and the former governor acknowledged the disconnect with a city he jokingly called the ?conservative bastion of Wisconsin.?

Despite his strong criticism of the national press writing him off, those conservatives must show up Tuesday in large numbers for Huckabee to have a chance of moving on.

?If we lose a choice, we lose a voice,? Huckabee said, asking people to make a ?loud noise? for his campaign at the polls Tuesday.

At the Concourse, Huckabee boasted his primary wins in states that could easily swing either way in November?s general election, including Kansas and Iowa.

?Look at the states that I’ve won, and look where the Republican map has to be in November,? Huckabee said. ?I may not have as many delegates, but the delegates that Sen. McCain has accumulated, many of them come from states that are not going to be in play when we get to November.?

No matter what happens in Wisconsin, Huckabee said his campaign will move forward.

?The day that we lose the competition is the day that we start drifting into complacency,? Huckabee said. ?That is not what makes us strong. Competition breeds excellence.?

The political storm in Wisconsin will surely dissipate after Tuesday, but with Wisconsin likely to be a swing state in the general election, the final nominees and their surrogates will be back.