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November 07, 2007
The Fallout from Colbert's Drop Out
I am writing this entry in response to news that Stephen Colbert's short lived presidental campaign is over.
As an avid fan of Stephen's show The Colbert Report I was both excited and disappointed when I watched him announce that he was running for President as a favorite son from South Carolina. I was excited to see his use of satire enter a new arena, and also interested to see dumb he could make the press look when they actually made a big deal about it. However, at the same time I was sad at how he was diluting the seriousness of the election.
I remember watching World News Tonight with Charles Gibson where Colbert's announcement actually made it into the 30 minute broadcast. Of course they debated about whether this was good for the election or not, and in a sense scolded him for entering the race for leader of the free world. However, the fact that he was only running in South Carolina kept the joke more funny than morbid, and it avoided the repercussions of him actually running for President in all 50 states. I mean in a sense he was keeping the joke in South Carolina, but effectively made it seem like it affected the entire race.
Also, as a watched his show in the weeks following his announcement I got a rare comedic insight into what it takes to actually file to become a canidate. Also I got a crash course in election law 101 when Colbert described how and how he could not use the money from his delicious corprate sponsor: Doritos. I mean that alone says something about how he was just poking fun at the process in general. It was the press that was dying to take him seriously.
However, now that Colbert has dropped out of the race for a variety of reasons we will never be able to see the true effect his canidacy would have had. I would have been willing to bet that he would have beat a couple of the Democratic nominees had their commisson not voted against him competing (Colbert dropped out of the Republican race earlier due to the high priced filing fee). Also if Colbert would have actually won some delegates it would be a sort of signal to the two parties that we are fed up with getting the same canidates year in and year out. So fed up that we are willing to vote for a man that says the number one threat to America are those pesky bears.
Posted by niemij at November 7, 2007 11:52 AM