Honest liar

Stephen Colbert – comedian, faux right wing pundit, egomaniac – is running for president.\nAt the time I am writing this, no one knows how serious his bid for the presidency actually is. \nBut his plans are apparently serious enough that he has researched how to get on the South Carolina primary ballot, running as both a Republican and Democrat.\nAnd when you stop and think about it, a Colbert presidential campaign makes perfect sense.\nColbert’s comedic breed is based on bloated self-congratulation and exploitation of empty political jargon. He has effectively established a cult of personality, reinforced by his followers in the “Colbert Nation.” And he never wavers from his finely crafted stage persona. \nIn other words, he does the politicians’ job better than they do.\nPolitics, like acting, is a type of performance. Presidential candidates become national characters during the campaign season, and we analyze how effectively they present themselves and how well they seem to fit the part.\nColbert makes us aware of this similarity between himself and the candidates in several ways. Sure, it’s a publicity stunt; he wants to sell his new book. But, being frighteningly arrogant, he also wants to go to lengths to which no other political satirist has gone. And finally, Colbert is pointing out the kind of soul-sacrificing artifice involved in running for president.\nColbert’s unapologetically fake image is all in stark opposition to the image of Barack Obama. Obama’s campaign revolves around his openness and ingenuity. He has tapped into the hopelessness of the American left, and tells us we can believe in him as a man not made by machine politics. He points to the rampant corruption and lawlessness of our current administration and claims he will be different. Those who worship in the cult of Obama claim he is in politics for the right reasons. (To my mind, “politics” and “right reasons” just don’t mix.)\n Obama’s campaign has done a fine job of painting him to be the most fresh-faced and trustworthy of all the candidates. And when I see his smiling face or hear his charismatic speech, I too am tempted to fall for the cult of Obama. \nBut the pragmatist in me kicks in, reminding me that no person running for president could possibly be anything but a product of machine politics. There’s no doubt about it; Obama is almost as good an actor as Colbert.\nWhy pick on Obama? He isn’t exploiting the tragedy of 9/11 to win favor of Americans, like sleazy Rudy Giuliani. He isn’t as dull-witted and Bush-like as Fred Thompson. He’s not a ‘flip-flopper’ on social issues like Mitt Romney. And he is certainly less machine than Hillary Clinton.\nI pick on Obama because he is parading around in a banner of truth. Colbert, on the other hand, embraces and revels in the lies and manipulations of politics. \nAt the end of the day, it is Obama who deceives us most of all by pretending to live in truth.\nSo my vote goes to the honest liar, Stephen Colbert.