Dawn on the bayou

Georgia's governor is named Sonny Perdue. Lousiana's new governor is named Piyush Jindal -- okay, but most people call him Bobby. (Story here.)

If you put Georgia and Louisana next to each other in a police lineup, the difference is stark. Since the end of Jim Crow, Georgia has grown to become the South's Old Reliable, leveraging a well-placed railroad depot named Terminus into a business giant today known as Atlanta. Millions of people have moved into the state in the last few years.

In the same time period, Louisiana, rich with oil and natural gas in her own right, failed to grasp the essential tenets of change guiding the New South out of its old wifebeating ways and into Polo shirts and khakis. Corruption grew. Poverty rose. David Duke almost got elected in 1990. Katrina hit, as did Jena. By 2006, some 30,000 people a year were hightailing it out of the bayou.

But now Jindal may have broken that dichotomy's mold, a first-generation Indian-American with a distinct bayou brogue and a reborn faith, having gone from Hinduism to Catholicism as a teenager. He, at 36, somehow epitomizes the modern cosmopolitan man with respect for his roots, even if they stretch from Punjab to Jeff Parish. The guy even delivered his own child in a failed bid to reach a hospital with his wife in high labor.

I'm a huge fan of Lousiana, and Chicago is forever sullied to me after Bears fans heckled Saints fans ("Get in your lifeboat and go home," was one reported refrain) during a 2006 playoff visit to the Windbag City.

That barb struck hard. And, ultimately, Bears fans missed the point. Louisiana, with the rough diamond of New Orleans, is a gumbo pot of unbelievable people, unbelievable food, and bold scenery. From my visits there, it's clear that Jindal may be judging the mood perfectly. The old good times are gone, and aren't coming back. But there are new good times ahead. With higher expectations come higher responsibility. By confidently voting in Mr. Jindal, Louisiana is ready for that.

{PIX: A watermelon carved with the state seal and motto, at one of Bobby Jindal's inauguration parties.)