South Carolina Democratic Party Denies Colbert Access To Primary Ballot

In a 13-3 vote, the Executive Council of the South Carolina Democratic Party denied Colbert access to the primary ballot. Colbert’s $2,500 filing fee will be returned to him.

The criteria principally used in this decision were: 1) Whether Colbert is a “bona-fide” Democrat and 2) Whether he has spent time campaigning in the state.

S.C.’s party director provided the basic rationale: “The general sense of the council was that he wasn’t a serious candidate

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How Punditry Is Awful: The Stephen Colbert Edition

From the Washington Post blog the Trail:

Each of the presidential candidates have their own profile on Facebook, the social networking site of the moment. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has 158,000 supporters on his page, tops among the Democratic candidates, and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.), the online star of the Republican field, has 34,000. There are also dozens of pro-candidate and anti-candidate groups. The most popular pro group, “Barack Obama: (One Million Strong for Barack),” has 392,000 members and was created by 26-year-old Farouk Olu Aregbe. Stephen DeMaura, 22, founded the largest anti group, “Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary),” which lists 514,000 members.

But Vachhani’s Colbert group beats them all.

“At a political level, comparing Mr. Obama and Mr. Colbert is patently unfair. To join Mr. Obama’s group … requires an explicit statement of political beliefs. Joining Mr. Cobert’s group signals that you’re a fan of his hilarious TV personality. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this — but to comapre Obama and Colbert is truly to compare apples and oranges,” Fred Stutzman, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, blogged Monday on TechPresident, the hub of online presidential campaigning.

Added George Washington University’s Michael Cornfield, who teaches about political strategy and message development: “Colbert is entertainment and entertainment always outrates politics. People want to be entertained. That’s all this means.”

Well, maybe.

Facebook has gotten increasingly political in recent months — and why not? YouTube has its CNN/YouTube debates, and MySpace has partnered with MTV for its live instant messaging forums. Earlier this month, Facebook — with more than 44 million members, the core group being high school and college age students — hosted two two-hour seminars for congressional and campaign staffers in Capitol Hill.

Maybe punditry would be more meaningful if they took more time looking at real candidates instead of fake ones. Or at least didn’t use fake candidates for anything but comedic relief. (Articles about Colbert threatening Georgia: fine. Comparing MySpace friends as a lead-in to serious analysis: not fine).

This amount of attention paid to Colbert by anyone but Colbert himself is embarrassing, or at least an indictment of the inane year and a half long election process. Especially when they make direct comparisons with Facebook or something of that ilk. Yes, people are more likely to sign up with Colbert than Obama because it means far, far less. It’s as if pundits get paid not to think.

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Stephen Colbert Officially Announces Candidacy For Presidency

This evening on his show, The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert officially announced that he will be running for president in the state of South Carolina as a “favorite son” candidate. Following his announcement, Colbert discussed the impact of his decision to run with CBS News’ Senior Political Correspondent, Jeff Greenfield.

By Colbert’s admission, his intention is to get enough support to qualify for a delegate at the conventions. I’m not quite sure of the specifics of the law regarding the legality of this. It sounds as though it shouldn’t be legally possible, but I imagine there are plenty of loopholes for something like this, especially when the candidate isn’t serious (or is he?…dun dun dun). Prior to his announcement, Colbert appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart to announce that he was considering whether or not to announce that he would be running for president

Given the limited information available, it’s tough to say how serious Colbert is. Regardless, I’m sure this will generate plenty of excite in the political realm and the blogosphere. This post will be updated as additional information becomes available.

As an aside, the last time the “favorite son” strategy was used (considered) in order to gain political leverage was during the 1998 Presidential Election. Sen. Moynihan (NY) tried to convince convice New York Governor Mario Cuomo and New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley to run as “favorite son” candidates. Colbert…as a modern Moynihan?

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