Where Does Rubio's Threat to "Unleash Chang" on Iran Originate?
Merging 1950s geopolitics and 1980s tennis, "Unleash Chang!" has one of the goofier etymologies.
"Unleash Chang" is a saying Marco Rubio got from Jeb Bush, who got it from his father GHW Bush shouting "Unleash Chang!" on the Camp David tennis court. It's one of the wittier puns the elder Bush ever made, as I'll explain below, but there’s no evidence that Jeb, let alone Marco, understands it.
From a 2012 Q&A with Marco Rubio in the NYT Magazine:
Q. After you became the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, in 2006, your mentor, Jeb Bush, presented you with a sword. What was that about?
A. Chang is a mythical conservative warrior. From time to time, if there’s a big issue going on, you’d see Jeb say, “I’m going to unleash Chang.” He gave me the sword of Chang.
Q. From which mythology does this conservative warrior hail?
A. I think it’s a Jeb Bush creation.
Governor Bush described the Legend of Chang at that 2006 sword bestowal:
Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society.
I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down.
Huh?
The actual backstory starts with …
Paywall here.
