The most patriotic man in America enters the race

EDIT: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE COLBERT'S NAME WAS REJECTED FROM INCLUSION ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY BALLOT. HERE IS THE LINK TO THAT STORY.

Stephen Colbert officially filed today to run for President of the United States. He's only running in South Carolina, and, as of the moment, he only filed to be on the Democratic primary ballot. Granted, it only costs $2,500 to be on the Democratic ballot, while it costs $35,000 to be on the Republican ballot. What does that tell you?

Colbert still has to go through a review to see if he is a "viable" candidate to get on the ballot itself. Remember kids, you can only run for President if you're a viable candidate. Look at these Rasmussen numbers and tell me he's not. I'm kinda hoping that Comedy Central backs his candidacy and gets him on the ballot as an independent in all 50 states, just to see how the American public would react.

My hope is that no one votes for him. That sounds harsh, especially because I love Colbert. However, my hope is that his candidacy helps show how ridiculous the process is in the first place: The tightly entrenched two-party system, the electoral college, the difficulty in getting on the ballot to begin with and finally the amount of money required to mount a serious campaign. While I know he's not running a serious campaign, if he does stay in the race, his candidacy would help demonstrate to the general public how flawed the electoral system in this country is. Hopefully, the broader audience that would be involved in watching him make light of the system would get the real punch line: A late night comedian centering his jokes on "truthiness" is a more viable candidate than more than half of the people running for president as serious contenders right now.

Colbert on Meet the Press


By the way, I love how Tim Russert talks about headlines and first goes to a New York Post headline as evidence of the general feeling about Colbert running. First off, notice that paragon of truth played it as the front page story. Yes, this from the paper that gave us:
I love how Russert then mocks Colbert's name, something already done by Eleanor Holmes Norton, then Bill O'Reilly. And then he decides to be a real journalist by asking tough questions about prose from Colbert's campaign literature that was written tongue in cheek. At no point does Russert actually ask him, "OK Stephen, all kidding aside. What's the point? Why are you doing this? Ratings bump, or commentary on American politics?" If he wanted to grill him, ask him what his campaign means. By grilling him on stuff Colbert wrote specifically to be funny and mock politicians, Russert walks into the punchline even better than Colbert could have written it himself.


Colbert on O'Reilly


Colbert at the White House Correspondent's Dinner