The ultimate, irreversible, realigning GOP winning streak in Southern gubernatorial elections, hailed by so many conservative pundits after the recent Republican victories in Kentucky and Mississippi, lasted exactly eleven days. Kathleen Blanco's November 15 victory in the Louisiana gubernatorial runoff, like Sen. Mary Landrieu's similar win a year ago, shows that centrist Democrats are still competitive in the South. Blanco upset Republican wunderkind Bobby Jindal by a 52-48 margin, putting together a classic biracial coalition based on 91 percent of the African-American vote and 40 percent of the white vote, with especially strong showings in Cajun Country.

Like Landrieu, Blanco managed to get Democrats to turn out nicely in a runoff election in Louisiana's open primary system (overall turnout actually exceeded that of the primary), refuting once again the Republican assumption that only their highly motivated voters would show up for the second round. And like Landrieu, Blanco won by drawing clear lines on issues without tilting too far to the left for Louisiana's relatively conservative electorate.

Most obviously, like Landrieu, Kathleen Blanco will augment the growing ranks of Democratic women in top statewide offices. She is the first woman to be elected Governor of Louisiana.

It's worth noting once again that the real winning streak in recent gubernatorial elections has been the non-incumbent party -- four straight now, counting California's recall election. And in fact, the non-incumbent party has now won 24 gubernatorial elections since the 2000 presidential year. This trend is not good news for the party of incumbent power in Washington, the GOP.