Following the successful transfer of his super PAC to Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert announced last Thursday his intention to run for President of the United States of South Carolina.
Comedian and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," the inspired candidate decided to join the race after polls revealed he could potentially trump Huntsman in the South Carolina GOP Primary. To do so, however, he was first required to relinquish control of his super PAC, a Political Action Committee capable of raising unlimited amounts of money for advertising candidate ideals and values. As lawyer and former Federal Election Committee Chairman Trevor Potter explained, so long as Colbert does not "coordinate" with Stewart, the "Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC" may legitimately operate.
Under Stewart's leadership, the super PAC, also dubbed "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow" ran ads attacking the negativity of other campaigns and endorsing a presidential candidate, one of which included a clip of Colbert slowly smiling to patriotic music over a period of twenty seconds. Through these ads, Stewart and Colbert effectively satirized other super PACs, which have contributed millions of dollars for GOP candidacies and sparked a controversy over their unlimited funding.
Unfortunately, as the state of South Carolina does not allow write-ins on the ballot nor accept candidates later than the November 1st deadline, the super PAC instead extended endorsements to Herman Cain, whose name shall appear on the ballot despite his earlier withdrawal from the race.
4 comments:
Just saying, I fully support Steven Colbert's run for the President of South Carolina. It is a shame there are no write-ins because, unless my sources are flawed, Steven would garner thirteen percent of the vote. If true, and somehow he ended up on the ballot, I WOULD MOVE TO SOUTH CAROLINA!!!! I would definitely not be against having Steven Colbert be the president of my state.
On a serious (if possible here) note, the ads being put out by the super PAC under the direction of John Stewart (who has in no way conferred with Steven Colbert about any of the going ons in his old
super PAC) are pretty much exactly the same as the Republican adds, only a lot more comical. All the adds do is spew hate so why not make that hate a little ridiculous? People will still believe it so why not? It's not like it could actually effect the election in any way shape or form...... right? I have to admit, I sincerely hope these adds do. Even if all the adds do is open up people's eyes as to how completely ridiculous the real adds, being put out by the super PACs (Romney's cough cough), are. Even if they don't do that, we still got a good laugh at adds that contained things like "Mitt the Ripper" so that's a job well done.
I find this absolutely hilarious. It's about time someone pointed out just how hypocritical (and ridiculous) real political ads and campaigns can be, and Stephen Colbert is the perfect man to do it. His satirical take is refreshing and entertaining, and hopefully will open the eyes of some to the absurdity of campaigning and fundraising that many (if not all) of the GOP nominees have shown.
Stephen Colbert satirizes super PACs well, for they are essentially a giant "loop-chasm" to the limit of fundraising for candidates. As long as they do not "coordinate" with the candidate, they can raise as much money as they wish for funding ads that undoubtedly help endorse a candidate regardless. Not only that, the race is becoming more and more petty as negative ads attack other candidates, one aspect of politics which I greatly despise.
That said, if Colbert were to legitimately run as an independent, polls suggest that he would take mostly Obama's votes and actually help the Republicans. It's too bad our two-party system works out that way.
I think Colbert is making a good point on how ludicrous the Super PACs are. The ads, I have seen a few, are not even that different from the republicans. If Colbert can get people to vote for Cain, it will show the power that Super PACs are in the Republican primaries and politics and campaigning in general. I personally think that Colbert is a great candidate and I would have voted for him in the South Carolina primary if I lived there.
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