Last month, Norris, a longtime Republican, decided to get serious and endorse a presidential candidate for real. He wrote in his column: "Like most of you, over the summer and fall, I've been watching, listening, studying and praying about who could lead this country as our next president.
"I won't leave you in suspense," Norris said. He endorsed Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister who shares many of Norris' religious and social views. (They both dispute the theory of evolution, for example.)
Like Norris, the charming Huckabee is a social conservative with a sense of humor and an eye for the Internet's influence. So he parlayed Norris' endorsement into a YouTube campaign commercial in which the candidate recites the fictional Chuck Norris jokes and Norris gives his substantive reasons for supporting the former Arkansas governor.
Subsequently, Huckabee has surged in the polls, particularly in Iowa, and Norris has been with him every step of the way on the campaign trail.
He sat in the second row at Wednesday's debate -- which was co-sponsored, appropriately enough, by YouTube -- and afterward gave glowing interviews about his candidate's performance. The whole thing was posted on the Internet within seconds.
Even people who are slow to catch onto Web trends -- including some in Hollywood -- are starting to get it. .
One of Norris' former reps found himself inundated this week with calls from reporters eager to speak with the legendary tough guy. "It's been years since we've represented him," puzzled the PR man. "Is he still working?"
Obviously he is.
He's got Google to prove it.
tina.daunt@latimes.com
