It will be interesting to see how many votes Stephen Col… I mean Herman Cain gets today in South Carolina. For those of you not in the loop, here is a quick summary of what the what is:
Stephen Colbert (soft t) is a comedian who plays an over the top, tongue in cheek Conservative news host on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report (soft t’s). A couple of weeks ago, a polling company did a poll (as they do) to test the waters in South Carolina before the upcoming Republican (Republican=Conservative) primary. And Stephen Colbert —who, of course, was not on the ballot as he was not running and isn’t even a real Conservative Republican, he just plays one on tv— came in at 5% (which was 1% higher than actual candidate John Huntsman). This news prompted Stephen’s character to begin considering a run for President of the United States of South Carolina. At first it appeared that this would not be taken any further than his show basking in the comedy / satire gold that fell in their laps for a few weeks. Even though Stephen Colbert has a history of not just making jokes and pointing out the flaws of the American system from behind his desk, but of actually doing real things (he started his own Super Pac, he’s worked as a migrant farm worker, etc), it was revealed that there was no way his name could ever get on the ballot in South Carolina. They do not allow write-ins and all the candidates were printed months ago. So it would seem that the joke would stop there. But then they had the brilliant idea of using Herman Cain. Since the ballots were printed so long ago, that means candidates who have dropped out of the race are still on the ballot. So — as the actual commercial from Stephen Colbert’s former super pac, now run by John Stewart shows — you can vote for Stephen Colbert by voting for Herman Cain. To make things even more interesting, South Carolina allows for non-Republicans and independents to vote. He even had a rally in South Carolina with special guest… Herman Cain.
There really is no better lens to view American politics through then the glasses that Stephen Colbert and John Stewart wear (and their writers).
