Chuck Norris has spoken, and his endorsement goes to Newt Gingrich. That should effectively end the process since it is a well-known fact that Chuck Norris is tough.  You think no one messes with Joe Biden?  No one messes with Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him.

Will this endorsement cause a single person to vote for Mr. Gingrich who would not have otherwise?  Perhaps not, but remember; Chuck Norris doesn't call the wrong number.  You answer the wrong phone.  So if you don't agree with him, perhaps you should check your assumptions.

Jokes aside, this endorsement highlights the drama in this year's presidential race.  The endgame, for a large slice of the population, is to replace Mr. Obama with - what?  The current phase determines the credible challenger.  The choice currently puts Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the top two positions.  The one is a manager and negotiator, the other an academic and firebrand.

To some the question is a matter of defeating Mr. Obama and any change is good.  To others it is critical to push as far away from the policies of the last three (or more) years as possible while there is an opportunity to do so, just as Mr. Obama won the presidency partly as a result of widespread disappointment with his predecessor and his successful exploitation of the opportunity presented by that disappointment.

Will electability win out over ideological purity?  Is Mr. Romney truly more electable than Mr. Gingrich in the general election?  Conventional wisdom says yes, but Chuck Norris says no.  The tactics  are complicated, and the final decision is in the distant future.

We are left with an important question.  Why are there liberals?  The answer, of course, is that they have not irritated Chuck Norris enough.  Yet.