Bayou Democratic Blues

The Democratic Party is in free fall in Louisiana. In interesting gubernatorial news, the state just elected the first Indian-American governor in U.S. history, Governor Bobby Jindal (R). Senator Mary Landrieu (D) is in the cross-hairs this fall and may well be the Democrats' only loss in the U.S. Senate. Governor Jindal is surely a rising star in the national Republican Party. The last major barrier-breaking governor was probably Virginia Governor Doug Wilder's victory in 1989. There was so much publicity about the Democratic landslide in 2006 that Massachusetts' election of the nation's second elected black governor that year didn't make many headlines.

What a long resume for such a young governor (36):

By the time he first ran for governor at age 32, Jindal already had served as Louisiana's health care secretary, president of one of its university systems and an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Bush. Republican former Gov. Mike Foster tapped Jindal to be the state's health secretary in 1996, when Jindal was only 24.