Colbert Nation

Television comedian and fake pundit Stephen Colbert is running for president.\nNo, seriously. \nHe announced his candidacy on his show “The Colbert Report” last week, though until he clarified on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” it was hard to tell whether or not he was joking. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I’m still not sure if he’s serious, considering the fact that he’s entering both as a Republican and as a Democrat, and that he says he’s only running in his home state of South Carolina.\nIt would be pretty interesting to see what would happen if Colbert – by some twist of fate – actually becomes the president of the United States. I’m sure “The Wørd” could be extended into a State of the Union Address. Maybe he could use “Better Know a District” to convince members of Congress to back his policies.\nIn all seriousness, there’s no real reason why Colbert shouldn’t run for President. He wouldn’t be the first entertainer to jump headlong into the world of federal politics. Hall of Fame major league pitcher Jim Bunning is a Senator representing Kentucky. Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota. Arnold Schwarzenegger quit his career as an action film star and bad actor to become governor of California. Even the greatest American ever, Ronald Reagan, was the star of terrible movies before governing California and becoming president.\nIt’s not as if any of these people had any prior experience or anything, or they were in unimportant positions. California would have the world’s fifth largest economy if it stood alone. I don’t really think that “Junior” or “Kindergarten Cop” prepared the Governator for his current vocation.\nIf anything, Colbert would be more prepared than the rest of these entertainers-turned-politicians. As a correspondent for “The Daily Show” and host of his own show, he has been highly involved in coverage and satire of the government and the political system in general. He already knows how it works: President of the United States is a bigger first job than any of the others, but governor of California is high up there too, and Reagan and Schwarzenegger didn’t run California into the ground.\nThis just goes to show the power of television. Since Colbert’s announcement, support (mostly among younger people) has started to spring up. What does that say about us as a country, that we’re actually willing to consider somebody as a possible president just because we like his TV show – especially since he’s playing a bizarro version of himself on that show?\nAside from that, this possible candidacy speaks to the state of the American political system today. There are people who would legitimately vote for Colbert for president over significantly more qualified candidates. If that’s the case, people must have really lost faith in those who are running the country. Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call to our leaders: Shape up, or the comedians will get your jobs.