And with some of the crazies running this year, that’s saying something.
Remember, South Carolina, he’s either Mitt Guiliani or Hillary Clobama.
I can’t find a cite, but I remember in one of his campaigns in either 1988 or 1992 his slogan was “Americans: I have heard your cries. Now quit your bitchin’.”
Aside: I remember reading an article on him where he was suing an ex wife he’d been married to for a couple of months claiming that she’d stolen $250,000 from his bank account and being amazed that “Pat Paulsen has $250,000 in a bank account?!” Apparently he had a good business manager.
Thanks for the free plug! But I don’t want to be his running mate. Maybe he’d be mine…?
Is it just me, or is Colbert’s campaign shtick already getting tiresome?
I’m also finding it not at all surprising that real world law is interferring with his joke, as tonight’s show proved.
Obviously, Colbert’s running mate should be Doritos® brand tortilla chips. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the vice president has to be a human, right?
Colbert is way better than that no talent ass clown… nice try though.
Personally, I Go Pogo.
I can’t give estimates as to how widespread it is, but it’s definitely not just you. I have faith in his comedic insight, though, that he’ll see it’s getting old and downplay it soon (at least until the SC primary).
Real world law interfering with his joke is (part of) his joke.
-FrL-
For some reason, I can never copy/paste from Wikipedia. (I don’t get a “copy” option upon right click.) But one of those slogans I thought was exactly Stephen Colbert. It went something like:
“All of America’s current problems can be traced back to the American Indians’ poor choice of Immigration policy.”
-FrL-
After selecting the text, try Control/C (the “copy” shortcut). Control/V is the paste shortcut.
Good quote.
I don’t think so. He really wanted that petition to be on his Comedy Central site and people noticed when it wasn’t there. He ran his mouth off and then got punted by reality.
You’re explaining the joke.
-FrL-
Maybe I should be a little less brief.
Colbert’s roots are in improvisational comedy.* It is the essence of Improv that you must take actual, unscripted realities and find the funny in them. This is what Colbert does, and it’s what he’s doing with this “presidential campaign.”
So I don’t mean to say it’s part of the joke in the sense that it’s all planned out. Rather, I mean to say it’s part of the joke in the sense that Colbert fully expected there to be plenty of obstacles and absurdities manifesting themselves in the process of his “campaign” and it was his intention to highlight these and play them up for comedy as he ran into them.
There’s another sense in which I meant it’s all part of the joke. Colbert’s show is funny this way: You’re watching a character portrayed, and you’re also watching Colbert portray the character. Colbert offers comedy explicitly on both of these levels. (Think of how often–at least once or twice a show–he kind of “breaks character” and giggles at himself. In many productions, this would be a flaw, but on the Colbert Report, it’s exactly right.) Anyway, part of the joke with this whole presidential campaign lies in the interaction between these two levels–on one level, the fictional character is trying to run for president, and is reacting absurdly to the natural obstacles that lie in the way of such an attempt, while on another level, the performer is showing some bemusement and even frustration at the obstacles to his ability to successfully perform the role of colbert-running-for-president. We’re supposed to laugh on both these levels. And there’s a third level, if we want to bother to go further–there’s colbert portraying colbert portraying colbert, and we can appreciate the cleverness of this third colbert in orchestrating the two lower-level performances.
So now I’ve explained the joke. What is it they say about when you have to explain the joke…? 
-FrL-
*Or, if those aren’t his roots, it’s a large part of his “showbiz upbringing.”
I got what you meant. I still say you’re wrong in this particular case.
I for one think it’s ridiculous to believe that Colbert is “surprised” by these obstacles. He didn’t just wake up the other morning and think “It’ll be funny if I go on The Daily Show and announce that I’m considering considering running for President. And then announce my presidency after that. I have no idea how it’ll work, but man, the laughs will be great that nice!” I find the premise that he isn’t fully aware of the obstacles before him and the legalities involved to be 100% absurd. Colbert is not a stupid man. Jon Stewart is not stupid (who is still an exec producer for TCR). Their staff of writers and interns are not stupid. You can be they’ve got somebody researching every aspect of this and lawyers involved. They’ve probably been planning this for awhile, and probably know damned well what it’ll take, even if the character of Stephen Colbert does not. Stephen Colbert the writer knows what’s going on. Stephen Colbert the character does not.
And of course he’s going to beat it into the ground. That’s part of his shtick.
Okay then! I think that will have to be that. 
-FrL-
Indeed. The Times reported that his representatives had contacted both South Carolina parties weeks ago. Whether he gets on or not is probably less important than having his candidacy be plausible.
The New York Times said yesterday that Colbert’s people called both parties in South Carolina before he made his announcement - in fact he called the Democrats weeks ago, and probably learned about the petition back then. So he knew what the laws were. And it sounds like he’s making a serious effort to get on the ballot.
In the end I suspect he will be relieved of the “burden” of having to campaign: the Democrats won’t approve him if he’s also running as a Republican, and the Republicans will find some excuse if he’s running as a Democrat. So he can either make months of bitter jokes about being left off the ballot, or he can keep up the joke as an independent or something.
ETA: That’s what I get for going back to work before hitting ‘submit.’