Chuck Norris has some fans in Duval County, Fla. The county recently released the names of those who received write-in votes for president there, and the roundhouse-kicking South Bay native (and famous Mike Huckabee supporter) got two.That's enough for a tie with George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Lou Dobbs -- but not enough to beat Mickey Mouse (3), Jesus (23) and Hillary Clinton (234).
This gives me a chance to re-post a chunk of one of my favorite stories from my time with the Daily Breeze, the one about Chuck Norris' political awakening:
He met Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1968, and has been friends with him since. But unlike the "Terminator," Norris has never had political ambitions of his own.
"Being a politician, your skin has to be three inches thick," Norris said in a recent interview. "What if I'm up on the platform debating, and one of the men starts attacking my character, and I run over there and choke him unconscious? Is that going to help my campaign?"
Though Norris got to know Ronald and Nancy Reagan through a charity tennis tournament, he did not become politically active until 1988, when George H.W. Bush ran for president.
Norris was asked by Lee Atwater, Bush's campaign manager to introduce Bush at a rally.
"People were calling Bush a wimp," Norris said. "So I went out to emcee the rally, and 20,000 people showed up. Next thing I know I'm on the campaign trail."
Before that election, Norris had never voted. Perhaps as a result, his political loyalties today are much more the result of personal connections than of a particular ideology.
Norris came to Huckabee after reading about him on a Christian Web site, TheRebelution.com. He researched his positions, and liked what he saw, but found a deeper affinity in Huckabee's life story.
"Mike hasn't lived an isolated, out-of-touch life like so many politicians," Norris wrote in a column on the conservative site WorldNetDaily.com, in late October. "Mike and his sister grew up poor, not privileged."
Norris also cited Huckabee's values, which are rooted in his faith, and compared him to King David.
Though he had not met Huckabee, Norris felt compelled to endorse him.
Huckabee had shown some dark-horse potential at the time, but he was still an obscure candidate. After the Norris endorsement, Huckabee said in an online video, "Everything in my campaign changed."
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