By Clay Risen
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 25, 2009; Page P01

It's true: Even the Birmingham airport smells like barbecue. And it's true that there is no better football than November's Auburn-Alabama game, a.k.a. the Iron Bowl. And of course it's true that the state is bounded, at its northern and southern edges, by two great tourist draws: the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, just below the Tennessee border, and the USS Alabama, docked permanently in Mobile Bay.