Stephen Colbert puts on the best political theater in America. The Comedy Central offered a pitch perfect performance during 2010 congressional hearings to highlight the woes of migrant farm workers. And his Super PAC stunt last year successfully emphasized the absurdity of our nation’s campaign finance laws.
Now, after hinting at it during his show Wednesday, Colbert’s taking his act to the next level: he’s forming an exploratory committee for a potential presidential run — in South Carolina, at least, where he’s one point ahead of actual candidate Jon Huntsman
“This is a difficult decision. I talked it over with my spiritual advisor. I’ve talked it over with my money,” said Colbert before inviting lawyer and former FEC chairman Trevor Potter to explain the nitty-gritty about keeping his Super PAC, “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” while running for the White House. The answer: no.
You can’t be a candidate and run a Super PAC, because it’s too close for comfort. “You can’t have the PAC,” Potter explains. But someone else can take it over, so long as they don’t coordinate with Colbert, like Mitt Romney and the former campaign staffers behind the “Restore Our Future” Super PAC supporting his candidacy.
So, to avoid pesky FEC laws, Colbert passed his Super PAC managerial duties off to buddy and fellow Viacom employee Jon Stewart.
“I would be honored,” said Stewart, before wondering, “But can we do this, because we’re business partners.” Good thing being business partners does not officially qualify as coordination. All it takes, Potter points out, is one simple document. Isn’t our democracy entirely uncomplicated and without conflict of interest? So now the organization shall forever be known as “The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC.”
With all that messy legalese out of the way, Colbert officially made it official:
For over a day now, the people of South Carolina have been crying out for someone who can restore our nation’s former greatness to its current perfection. Well, America, that someone is now! I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina! Whooo, whooo, whooo! And with your help, and possibly the help of some sort of outside group that I am not coordinating with, we can explore taking this country back! Thank you. God bless you all! And God bless Citizens United!
The comedian’s tongue-in-cheek 2012 bid is the beautiful, eye-opening climax of his efforts to illustrate the so-close-they-could-kiss relationship between corporate money, crony capitalism, media money and the ballot box. It is such a perfect display, such a perfect evolution of his faux conservative gimmick that it’s almost as if Colbert and company planned this all along.
January 13, 2012 at 12:17 pm, Jen said:
is stephen colbert a clever opportunist or a saboteur of the democratic process?
http://littlebiggy.org/4709107
January 13, 2012 at 1:41 pm, Nick said:
Yeah…I don’t really think either is accurate. As a comedian first and foremost, he understands the value of the comedy theater he’s presenting to us. But as a satirist, running in SC – or running for POTUS in all states – presents a perfect opportunity to expose the sheer ridiculousness of not only campaigning but the election process in general. We’ve “known” for quite some time that money and popularity drive successful campaigns…but were Colbert to be even moderately successful, this knowledge might actually be confirmed.