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Opinion: Chuck Norris, aging actor, says John McCain is too old

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Now we know who Mike Huckabee is really worried about competing against for the Republican nomination. Sunday, the genial winner of the Iowa Republican caucuses sent his kickboxing attack dog Chuck Norris out to go after Sen. John McCain.

McCain, who’s been given up for dead a couple of times in his life, the latest one politically, is riding high this morning heading into the closing campaign days for the Florida primary after his Saturday victory over Huckabee in South Carolina and his win before that in New Hampshire. It seems McCain and the struggling Fred Thompson siphoned off enough of Pastor Huckabee’s expected evangelical votes to deny him victory in the Palmetto State, despite Huckabee dredging up the old Confederate flag issue.

Chuck is the noted late-night TV gym equipment salesman and arguably is -- well, maybe not arguably -- one of the worst actors since the Greeks invented drama. Although he does appear to throw a good grenade and spray a blazing machine gun.

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But Norris has endorsed the 52-year-old former Arkansas governor for...

the GOP nod and, since acting jobs are apparently scarce nowadays, seems to spend just about every waking moment about a foot or two behind Huckabee’s shoulder, grinning, for virtually every photograph at virtually every campaign stop. Presumably, the Arkansan believes such celebrity will help attract votes.

On Sunday, Norris hosted a fundraising barbecue for Huckabee at the weightlifter’s Texas spread, the Lone Wolf Ranch, near Navasota. He made a point of telling reporters he was concerned about McCain’s health and age, which is very kind and thoughtful but may have also had a political point. Surrogates for presidential candidates, including Bill Clinton, rarely say anything unplanned.

McCain is actually not the oldest candidate in the race. That distinction belongs to Rep. Ron Paul, who’s 72 already, and although he has thousands of enthusiastic young supporters, many more millions of campaign dollars than Huckabee and took second place in Saturday’s Nevada GOP caucus, seems stalled in the lower ranks of Republican candidates.

So Norris, who has played a Vietnam POW in the movies, isn’t worried about the Texas congressman. He’s concerned for the Arizona senator, a former Navy squadron commander who was an actual POW in Vietnam for about six years, wasn’t rescued after being shot down and has difficulty combing his hair now because his tortured, broken arms won’t go that high. McCain on inauguration day 364 days from this morning would be, at 72, the oldest man to take office.

“I didn’t pick John to support,’ Norris explained, ‘because I’m just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency. We need to find someone that can handle it for four years or eight years ... that has the youth and vision and communication skills to make that work.”

Of course, McCain picking Huckabee as his vice presidential running mate could solve that problem. However, that’s what Chuck says he thinks today. But what does he know? He’ll be a creaky 68 on Inauguration Day and at that advanced age could well be fumbling for the TV remote, watching his old ads through the nights from assisted living.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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