Stephen Colbert Running for President?

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Published By christina on January 14, 2012
Tags: America, celebrit braking news, celebrity gossip, Celebrity image, Celebrity News, Celebrity photo, Colbert Report, Entertainment news, president, Stephen Colbert, United States

It’s official: Stephen announced on his show ‘The Colbert Report’ on Jan. 12, that Stephen Colbert transferred his Super PAC to Jon Stewart, in an effort to open up the possibility for the president of the United States of South Carolina.’” — would you vote for him?

Here’s what Stephen had to say about it after the transfer took place:

“I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina!” Stephen said right before tons of red, white and blue balloons filled his studio.

So Stephen isn’t exactly running for President, but in a Public Policy Polling survey released earlier this week, it found that Stephen has 5% of the vote in South Carolina — whereas, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman only has 4%.

Over at Grist, Jess Zimmerman collects some Colbert Report segments on energy and the environment in an attempt to gauge how green a president he’d be. The consensus? He’d be as enviro-friendly as Bill O’Reilly, obviously! For instance, he’d eliminate the EPA, approve the Keystone XL, and overturn the so-called “ban” on incandescent light bulbs.

Could Stephen really run in the Jan. 23 primary? He already missed the deadline for South Carolina’s primary ballot and the state doesn’t allow write-in votes.

Colbert, who tried to run for president in South Carolina in 2008 but was unable to get on the ballot, has been pointing to a recent Public Policy Polling survey that found him polling ahead of Jon Huntsman in the state. Ballot access rules vary from state to state. It’s possible that Colbert could get on the ballot in states where deadlines have not passed, and/or get write-in votes in states that allow such votes. But getting on ballots is an arduous, time consuming process – just ask the major GOP candidates who have failed to do so in various states – and it’s unlikely that Colbert would attempt to do so for what is essentially a joke.

The real significance of Colbert’s announcement may be the spotlight it puts on super PACs, into which donors can pour unlimited money in order to support or attack candidates, and thus influence election outcomes. Super PACs were made possible by the 2010 “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision that effectively classified money as speech.

A Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday found that Colbert is polling ahead of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman in South Carolina. According to the survey, Colbert has 5 percent of the vote and Huntsman has 4 percent.

Upon reading those results on “The Report” on Wednesday, Colbert said: “This just got real.”

This is more of a stunt to draw attention to Stephen’s superPAC, which is trying to bring awareness to the misuse of these private groups which are used to elect political candidates And, of course, the unchecked influence of money and campaign donations in politics is the number one obstacle to good energy and environmental policy. So, we here at Treehugger will be eagerly watching to see what happens when an ersatz rightwing blowhard runs for the real office of president of the United States of America.

Tags: America, celebrit braking news, celebrity gossip, Celebrity image, Celebrity News, Celebrity photo, Colbert Report, Entertainment news, president, Stephen Colbert, United States