David Broder notes that the election of future president Bobby Jindal as governor of the state of Louisiana is part of a trend in statehouses across the South.

With Jindal's impressive victory, Republicans have established a phalanx of successful conservative governors across the Southeast who share a pragmatic streak that voters seem to like. They are the mirror image of the band of pragmatic liberal governors the Democrats have elected in states ranging from New Hampshire to Arizona, but concentrated in the Midwest — Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Next door to Louisiana in Mississippi, Haley Barbour, a former Washington lobbyist and chairman of the Republican National Committee, is about to win easy re-election to a second term.

In Alabama and Georgia, two more Republicans, Bob Riley and Sonny Perdue, both former businessmen, are in their second terms as governor. And in Florida, Charlie Crist, another Republican, has proved to be even more popular in his first year in office than Jeb Bush.

As a Republican, this gives me reason for optimism.

This trend means that there is a new generation of leadership developing -- these governors and their staffers -- who will be in a position to win election to Senate seats and appear on national tickets for a generation. And if the sort of trends demonstrated in Jindal's election are, in fact, a long-term trend, it means that the GOP message still resonates. It will be the new faces -- young faces like Jindal, in particular -- who will continue to spread the Republican message to an ever more receptive electorate. So while the GOP may have stumbled recently, and may even lose in 2008, the future is bright.

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