Future President Bobby Jindal was elected our nation's youngest governor -- and the first Indian-American to ever reach such an office. The Republican Congressman will replace the incompetent Kathleen Blanco, whose failures during Hurricane Katrina led directly to the deaths of thousands of Louisianans during and after the storm, as well as delayed the federal response to the storm by her inaction.

Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) became the nation's first Indian American governor Saturday, outpolling 11 rivals in Louisiana and drawing enough votes to avoid a runoff election next month.

With about 90 percent of the state's nearly 4,000 precincts reporting, Jindal had 53 percent of the vote. His nearest competitor, state Sen. Walter J. Boasso (D), had 18 percent.

Louisiana holds an open gubernatorial election, with candidates of all parties competing. By drawing at least 50 percent of the vote, Jindal avoided a Nov. 17 runoff race with Boasso.

"Let's give our homeland, the great state of Louisiana, a fresh start," Jindal said to a cheering crowd at his victory party, according to the Associated Press.

Jindal, 36, was making his second attempt to become Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction. The last one was P.B.S. Pinchback, a black Republican who served briefly between 1872 and 1873, at a time when many white voters were disenfranchised.

And who disenfranchised those non-white voters? That would be the Democrats, who were outraged by the notion of a non-white holding political power in the state. The more things change, the more they stay the same -- given the race-based smears of Democrats against Jindal during this and his previous race for governor.

Good luck with Louisiana, sir -- you have quite a task before you, overcoming Louisiana's legacy of Democrat rule, which has left it the nation's poorest, most uneducated and most unhealthy state.

I look forward to voting for you in 2012 or 2016 when you are the GOP nominee for President.

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