It is hard to lend any credence to the claim of Tea Party racism to begin with, much less now given how much excitement has coalesced around Herman Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, radio talk-show host and successful businessman. And after what I’ve seen of him, what’s not to like about Cain? His humble origins, his rise in the business world with a record of turning around poor performing companies, and his common-sense/no-nonsense worldview — especially given his apparent lack of fear in the expression of his views — provides a stark contrast with certain other Republican presidential contenders.

While there is no such thing as the perfect candidate, here is why, given the current filed of possible candidates, I like Herman Cain above all the others. First, while business experience isn’t the same as political experience, Cain’s track record reveals a man who is capable of tackling a difficult job, finding solutions, and implementing them to achieve positive end results. He joined Pillsbury in 1977. By the early 1980s, he had risen to the position of vice president. Later, he took over managing the Philadelphia region for Burger King. In just three years, Cain turned the 400 area stores around from being the least profitable in the whole country to the most profitable. The next unprofitable business he turned around was Godfather’s Pizza. Cain did this in less than half the time it took him to turn around the Burger King region.

And it isn’t just business. Cain has demonstrated the same drive in other aspects of his life. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 and went on to receive a master’s of science degree in computer science from Purdue University, paying his way by also working a full-time position for the Navy. This drive, combined with his successful business background, reveals a capable person, a hard working person, a person who has real world experience. All essential in any executive and none more so than the nation’s chief executive.

Just as importantly, Cain gets the ideological points right. He is on record as supporting only American laws in American courts. He opposes abortion, supports cutting taxes, and most critically at the moment, understands we are at war with terrorists. He isn’t anti-Muslim, but Cain isn’t blindly tolerant either. As G. K. Chesterton observed, “Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.” Put simply, intolerance is perfectly acceptable when leveled against, say, spouse abuse or child abuse. We should be intolerant against thieves, rape, sexual predators, and so on. Likewise, we should also be intolerant of any and all religious fanatics who seek to spread their faith through violence. And there is nothing wrong with verifying, insofar as is possible, anyone’s intent or examining their religious views when those views may pose a threat to national security. And that is all Cain seeks to do: simply to verify the loyalty to United States and our Constitution of potential administration members that are Muslim. It isn’t bigotry but simple common sense.

Cain also understands the threat liberalism poses to America. At CPAC earlier this year, Cain flatly stated the “objective of the liberals is to destroy America” and to “make it mediocre.” He’s exactly right. It may not be deliberate, but intended or not liberal policies and ideas are directly responsible for the poor economy, the moral degeneration, and the weakened position where America now finds herself in the world. Many Republicans have done little to stem the tide and in fact have all too often gleefully ridden right along with Democrats down the hill of American decline. Cain isn’t one of those Republicans and, frankly, is exactly the type of man we need in office, a man who not only understands the threat the left is to American strength, values, and success but has the boldness to flatly expose the threat for what it is.

Of course, Cain is not perfect and does have his weaknesses. He’s no foreign policy expert. He doesn’t support privatizing Social Security. And while he was the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, he’s never actually been elected to public office. This is not an issue with some voters, but to others it is. All things considered, though, the nation’s capitol is full of highly experienced, long-term politicians. How’s that working out? And while some Republican luminaries have been quick to criticize him for his shortcomings, Cain has shrugged off the barbs. In response to critics like Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer, Cain even offered to supplement their claims by pointing out three more of his own weaknesses: that he doesn’t “know everything,” doesn’t “pander to groups,” and is “terrible at political correctness.”

That he doesn’t know everything puts him in league with everyone else, that he knows he doesn’t know everything sets him apart. As to the other two: they are of course actually strengths. It was a gutsy statement revealing common sense and and an understanding of the negative role special interest groups and the politically correct play in our country.

Cain does, however, have one big potential weakness. And it is one that he does need to address quickly: to come up with concrete plans. Granted, it is early in the campaign, but he has not developed, or at least has not yet revealed, specific plans for dealing with the nation’s many problems. Obviously, America’s biggest problem of all will be solved by voting Obama out of office, further strengthening conservative majorities in the House, and taking a large enough segment of Senate seats back to assure that successful opposition to conservative policies becomes impossible. Everything else would virtually fall into place by itself if such a success could be achieved. But in the meantime, Cain must develop and clearly present to the voters specific and detailed strategies for dealing with joblessness, the poor economy, healthcare, Medicare, and our debt and deficits. He also needs to offer a strategy, despite his claim that he doesn’t want to do this until he assumes the office of president and has access to more information, to first win the war on terror and then bring our troops home.

Current shortcomings aside, Cain is a personable man, a man of character, and a man with proven leadership abilities under his belt. But perhaps the best thing about Cain is that if his opponents attack him, then they must be racist. How easy that must make everything for a candidate and his supporters. Not to have to take seriously much less answer criticisms and instead shrug them off the backwards racist bigotry of mere agitators rather than the legitimate questions and concerns of average Americans worried about their job, their mortgage, and their children’s future. Obviously, this is not so much a joke as it is means to reveal the warped logic of Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and numerous others who ridicule Obama’s opponents as racist simply because they aren’t afraid to point out the fact that the Obama Administration is a dismal failure. The good news for those of us sick of listening to such nauseating nonsense is that if Cain is successful in his bid for the nomination and goes on to challenge Obama then, at least this time around, we can remove the race card from the deck and actually deal with issues rather than superficialities.

Jeff O’Bryant is the author of “Up into the Hills – A Brief History of Catoosa County” and holds two degrees: a bachelor’s in education and a bachelor’s with honors in history. He can be contacted at jeffobryant@catt.com.