Tough talk

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On the 7th day, God rested. Chuck Norris took over.

There are hundreds of these online.

Chuck Norris can kill your imaginary friends.

Chuck Norris — Air Force veteran, martial artist, actor, Iowa Caucus V.I.P. visitor — is tougher than the rest, the internet memes claim.

Once a cobra bit Chuck Norris' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.

Yep, Chuck Norris is just THAT tough, apparently. Norris campaigned through Iowa during the 2008 presidential campaign on behalf of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (random sidenote: Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah — who is now Arkansas governor — worked for her dad’s presidential campaign in Iowa and met her future husband, Bryan Sanders).

Mike Huckabee won the caucuses that year. Perhaps, this commercial from Norris helped.

Tough talk is also a central theme in the 2024 Iowa Caucus campaign. No Chuck Norris sightings here…yet (Norris is 83 now, by the way). But there’s plenty of talk these days to try to prove a candidate is a bad ass. Here are just a few recent ones:

"We’re going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (July 30th while campaigning in New Hampshire).

“I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley (presidential announcement video, February 14th).

Those comments came from three of the Republican presidential candidates. And while it seems some of the GOP candidates are trying to out-tough talk the others, they aren’t the only politicians trying to convince you that they aren’t wimps.

Remember when Joe Biden challenged a man to a pushup contest during a campaign event in New Hampton in December of 2019. (They didn’t do the pushups together. But Biden did call the man a “damn liar” following the man’s accusations about Biden’s son, Hunter.)

Anecdotally, it seems to me like trying to show how tough you are has become a bigger thing during this presidential campaign. Do you agree? Is this a Trump effect on the race?

It’s something I’ll be watching for the rest of this campaign. I’m too scared not to watch.

The dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.

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