Since then Huckabee has jumped from second tier to a dark horse contender. A recent poll in Iowa shows him tied for second place with Rudi Guliani, ahead of John McCain and Fred Thompson. Nationally, todays Rasmussen poll places him tied for fourth with John McCain with 12%. Similarly, his campain announced that in the five days after the endorsement went public, they recieved about $550,000 in contributions, accounting for more than half the amount that they recieved in October total.

Think about it. Chuck Norris, an actor who became famous for his martial prowless before becoming an internet meme (Ex: Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming that 'Law & Order' are the names of his left and right legs.), is exerting a fairly dramatic influence over the Republican nomination process.

If ever there was a case to be made for voter apathy, there it is.

If a candidate can surge like this based off of the nomination of an actor/internet joke, what does that tell you about what people think about the candidates? That tells me a surprising amount of voters have either not formed a strong opinion on the candidates yet, or they just haven't started caring. Now, keeping that in mind, think of how long this process has been going on this year. The first Republican candidates debate was back on May 3rd. Now, almost half a year later, following wall-to-wall coverage in this 24-hour news world we live in, following debate after debate, people just don't seem to care that much.

I read in the Washington Post there's going to be another Democratic debate tonight. It's the first one in more than a month, and nobody but the diehard politics and debate junkies care.