By now you may have already heard about Stephen Colbert's announcement that he is going to run for president, as both a Republican and a Democrat, but only in his home state of South Carolina.
I find Colbert and his nightly program, The Colbert Report, hilarious - and it is high time that another fake campaign for president (such as those run by Pogo and Pat Paulsen) was conducted. We need all the humor we can get given the group we have running this time around, don't we?
But Colbert may have actual momentum! Computerworld reports that Colbert has already accumulated more than 1 million supporters on his Facebook site. They contrast this with Barack Obama's One Million Strong For Barack group which has accumulated just over 380,000 members over the past nine months.
And Colbert's campaign has caused others to speculate what might happen if federal election officials take his campaign seriously. How could anyone take it seriously when he has stated that Larry Craig might be his running mate!?!?
I guess it just goes to show that Americans love celebrity...
Friday, October 26, 2007
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6 comments:
Because of apathy and a need to make everything easy, celebrity equals name recognition. Colbert(and I love his show too, even slightly more than The Daily Show) is taking this apathy on and showing our political system for what it is, no-holds-barred wrestling in an open cesspool.
In a telling interview this week on NPR, Newt Gingrich, who admittedly was hawking his new book on using markets to solve our environmental problems, was asked why he wasn't going to take his strategies for solving problems and run for President. I am not a Newt supporter(nor a hater either), but his answer was spot on. He said the way we campaign for office now, getting donations, sloganeering and keeping your foot out of your mouth trumps thinking of policy solutions and the direction of this country's path. The way the politicians want the debate and the way the media facilitates the debate aren't conducive to intelligent discussions on our most pressing problems. He also said, and may be right, that this may be the reason Al Gore hadn't put his hat in the ring, because Gore might think he would do more good taking the tack he has than to run for President. Something to think about.
Newt is right! And I don't mean the way he normally is right, that is far right.
And Bawdy, OK, you don't hate Newt, but do you at least "strongly dislike" him?
Personally or politically?
Politically. I can only surmise that you do not know the man personally. If you do know him personally then that insight would be welcome, as well.
By personally, I meant personality-wise. Personally, I think he is a muthafucker and would not care for him. Politically, we would get along better as Newt leans more toward libertarianism than most Republicans. I feel some of his ideas are worthwile and it never hurts our system to have people willing to bounce around new ideas from both sides of the aisle. I would consider some(not all) of his ideas as good ideas.
Well, frankly I think that your description of Newt would fit most politicians (except for the Libertarian thing). That is, most have at least some good ideas and those good ideas should be considered.
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