WAVERLY, Iowa — People might have gotten the wrong impression lately that Marco Rubio is some kind of pointy-toed-boot-wearing fancy-pants. Stop thinking that. Right now.

He owns a handgun. Went to a gun store on Christmas Eve, in fact, because he was just itching to buy one, he told New Hampshire voters last week.

He played football in college and obsesses about it as a fan, as he makes abundantly clear in a new ad. He even married a Miami Dolphins cheerleader.

And no one would be harder on terrorists: He would give them a “one-way ticket to Guantánamo, where we’re going to find out everything they know.”