FASCINATING - AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  Some would call it a triumph of hope over experience, but some black Republicans believe next year will be their year.  From Fox News:

Allen West, a retired Army colonel who is running for the second time against Democratic Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd congressional district, West, is one of a small but determined group of black Republicans running for seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives in 2010.

When former President Jimmy Carter said racism was an underlying factor in attacks on President Obama, it's safe to say he had no intention of boosting Allen West's campaign for Congress in Florida's Broward County.

But according to West, a retired Army colonel who is running for the second time against Democratic Rep. Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd congressional district, that is exactly what has happened.

"Since (Democrats) have thrown out the race card, it has made me more appealing," says West, one of a small but determined group of black Republicans running for seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives in 2010.

Eager to overturn the "conventional wisdom" that the GOP is mainly a white bread party that offers few opportunities for minorities, these black Republicans believe they can attract increasingly agitated conservatives, as well as independents, to make 2010 their year.

COMMENT:  The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is an African-American, so the timing here might be right.  But black Republicans have not fared very well in recent decades in the party of Lincoln, and there are still bitter memories of Pat Buchanan and his "southern strategy" racialism of the 1960s.  There is also the reality of Colin Powell, ostensibly a Republican, having endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.

The so-called "black vote" is almost monolithically Democratic, even though the Democratic Party has done little for blacks, while talking the talk.  An imaginative campaign to peel off African-American voters by showing the advantages of conservative policies could revolutionize American politics.  Let's see if the Republicans can wake up and smell the victory.

October 13, 2009