When The New York Times reports on Slate’s discovery of the Facebook-declared political affiliation of Rudy Giuliani’s daughter as earnestly as The Washington Post covers the uncovered cleavage of Hillary Clinton, the 2008 campaign seems more likely headed toward an ultimate punch line than a Tuesday in November. With comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert intending to get his name on the ballot in South Carolina, the campaigns and the media frenzy surrounding the endless election cycle seem to be taking an interesting turn, though certainly not into uncharted territory.
Mounting a presidential campaign to make a statement or even a joke is nothing new. Late entertainer Pat Paulsen ran in five presidential races, gaining 921 votes in the 1996 New Hampshire primary. Running on lies and uncivil attacks on his opponents, the World War II veteran, who first ran in the 1968 election, made satire out of political tactics that have now, to some extent, become the norm.
Many candidates now in the race — already seriously lagging behind the fundraising efforts of $91-million woman Clinton or $62-million man Mitt Romney — seem to be running more to get their ideas out in the public arena than to actually win the Oval Office. The addition of Colbert to this mix may distract the media from the issues at hand — but when political reporting focuses as much on personalities and campaign quirks as platforms and serious debates, it is not hard to capture national attention with something as ridiculous as a melting snowman in a YouTube video. Colbert, who called himself “an Average Joe like you — if you have a TV show” in an Oct. 14 Times op-ed, knows he is sure to boost his worth with this move, even if he does not win a single delegate from the South Carolina electorate.
On Oct. 9, Colbert released his first book, I Am America (And So Can You!), and on his Sunday interview with Meet the Press host Tim Russert, the pundits structured their conversation around excerpts from his book. A staged political campaign is sure to help book sales sky rocket and make those Colbert for President T-shirts all that more popular.
Whether running for fun, profit or an exercise in the rights of an American-born adult over 35 years old, the satirist who parodied the last election is taking his involvement a step further this round, with either the most insightful or nonsensical words heard in the race yet.