Herman Cain is surging in Republican presidential primary polls supported by us Tea Partiers and conservatives.

Yet aren’t we supposed to be “racists” according to insults hurled at us for decades by Democrats?

Then when we find a conservative black candidate like Cain whom we can embrace, the racism just gushes from the Democrats. It is like the 100 years of Democrat hatred of blacks until they were able to co-opt the black vote. (Note: Most blacks were Republicans up until the 1960s, including Martin Luther King. Because the Republican party was founded in 1854 as the anti-slavery party.)

Look at the way modern-day Democrats have despised black Republicans like Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

So what is going on here?

Answer: As with all of conservatism, our embrace of Herman Cain is not about the color of his skin. It is about the content of his character. And we conservatives like Cain’s character very much.

On the other hand, we conservatives find that most blacks in America today are liberals and, like white liberals, do not fit our definition of what kind of character a person needs to succeed and to be a good citizen. So we are called racists even though we in fact are talking about character, not race.

We conservatives indeed are demonstrating what Martin Luther King urged us to do in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech of August 28, 1963 when he said, ”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

So are we closer to King than liberals are?

Of course we are. We always have been. And King would be shocked at the state of much of black America today under Democrat liberalism with its widespread violence, illegitimacy, disrespect for moral and societal standards, educational failure, family breakdown and general dissolution.

Thus now we conservatives are saying that a black man like Herman Cain may indeed be just what we need to lead our nation out of the economic darkness as Cain continues to surge in Republican polls.

Is this just a temporary blip? Or is he really our guy?

Time will tell. But I have a feeling that this is more than a blip. Much more.

Our admiration for Cain represents a burning desire to have another decent, thoughtful, impassioned conservative in the White House. After all, the last one was Ronald Reagan. And we are hungry. It has been a long haul for us.

Cain is an unabashed conservative and that is what we love about him. He is brash. He is bold. He is unafraid. He knows what he knows, just as we all do. He is eminently likeable. What you see is what you get. And oh, yes, he is black.

And this is what the Democrats fear most – a conservative of any race or ethnicity with a clear message who is not cowed by liberals or their media friends. Who is not tongue-tied in a debate. Who has charisma. Who will appeal to Americans of all stripes who are deeply concerned about the drift of our great nation.

Because Democrats think that charisma is something you get at Harvard, not in the military and in the hard-knocks world of business where Cain built his character and his appeal. Because if you can come out of corporate America with a big smile on your face, you are something special. And Cain indeed is special.

And rest assured that if Cain is the nominee, he is going to need all the charisma he can muster because he will be subject to the worst Democrat racial attacks since the days of the Ku Klux Klan. And the real racists in America will finally be exposed.

Oh, the liberals are having a fit. They say we conservatives are embracing Cain just to prove something, that we are not the bigots that we certainly are inside, according to their dogma.

If only it were so, liberals… if only it were so. You may be in for the shock of your lives.

To tell the truth, I have been undecided about this race. I support Rick Perry but he has been disappointing in debates despite the fact that he is probably the best candidate. His record in Texas is one of success except for one bad spot – his stand on illegals. If he can get back on track in the debates, he can win. Unfortunately he is not a good debater and that has hurt him.

Romney has the advantage of name recognition and polished debating skills. And the aura of invincibility – that he is going to be the nominee. But he has several big minuses among us conservatives.

Newt Gingrich remains an intellectual powerhouse but remains perhaps exactly that – an ideas man, not a president. But, hey, you never know; he has surged recently. Rick Santorum could be as good a president as Reagan. So could Michele Bachmann; she is smart as heck. And Ron Paul is as good as they come on most conservative issues.

But Herman Cain is doing what the others are not – he is sizzling like a T-bone on a steakhouse grill. He has captured the public imagination. He is funny and alive. He is more exciting than any other candidate. Is he going to be the breakout figure for 2012?

He sure could be. Supported by all us “racists” in the conservative movement.

To be honest, I was skeptical about Cain. Although he has sterling credential with his military and business experience he also has stirred controversy with his 9-9-9 plan. He has slipped up with a comment about an electric fence on the Mexican border and has upset pro-lifers with a muddled statement about abortion.

But it is still early and these are minor mistakes. And hey, who the heck was Barack Obama when he first ran – an inexperienced one-term US senator and a former community organizer who was catapulted into office by a compliant media.

And Cain is despised by liberals because he has not come up through the black-power vetting process – as a politician, entertainer or activist with all the proper politically-correct left-wing lingo in his vocabulary.

No, Herman Cain is someone who has a sterling character that speaks to the American experience, not the black experience.

And that is precisely what we conservatives are looking for – character. Someone who understands what it means to be an American rather than part of some aggrieved group that wants spoils from the federal government.

Indeed Herman Cain is a hot ticket for those of use yearning for a leader with a vision for the future, for those of us who are just like Cain – people of character who are not members of some group… except one big group called Americans.

Please visit my blog at www.nikitas3.com for more conservative insights.