I wonder the same. But if 2008 is any indication, the Democratic wave is slowly but surely seeping its way into the South with the Senate wins of Mark Warner in Virginia and Kay Hagan in North Carolina.
What we see more in 2008 is the bifurcartion of the South between those states that have seen huge in-migration from the northeast and midwest, and which have diverse economies, from the rest of the south.
I exclude Florida and Texas from any considerations here because they are so big and diverse to begin with. Given the rest of the South, you have Virginia and North Carolina on one hand, and to a lesser extent South Carolina and Georgia, vs. AL/MS/LA/AR/TN/KY. In the former states, we saw swings to Obama and Congressional Dems on Election Day based on the Obama coalition. In the other states, the white vote stayed put or shifted even more Republican, and Congressional wins came in spite of Obama's winning coalition or were denied.
This is a long way of saying that Kay Hagen offers no hope or model to Louisiana that I can see.
