"I'M DOING IT!"
With these immortal words on Wednesday, Oct. 16, Stephen T. Colbert announced his quixotic run for the presidency (in South Carolina). The balloons dropped, the crowd roared and the rest of the politically-minded nation wondered what to make of this development.
Will it affect the race? Is he serious? Doesn't this sort of thing cheapen the process?
No, no and no. Well, sort of no.
In terms of how Stephen Colbert's entry affects the presidential race (he is running as a favorite son candidate in South Carolina and will be appearing on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots), you will not see the other candidates impugning his character and denouncing his platform.
That, of course, would be silly. He will probably not be invited to South Carolina debates, and whatever meager percentage he does manage to draw in the election will not threaten the voting bloc of any other candidate.
He also isn't really serious; he is not expecting to make a killing in the state or to gain the momentum to sweep to the presidency. In fact, he told Tim Russert directly that he does not want to be president - he wants to run for the presidency. There's a difference.
He is, on the other hand, seriously involved. He has filled out the paperwork (some of it on-air during "The Colbert Report") and consulted with Democratic and Republican Party officials before making his announcement.
As for the effect on the process, it is really nothing new. Although many people of our generation are unaware, comedian Pat Paulsen ran for president in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992 and 1996. His slogan during the 1996 campaign, which came a year before his death, was "Send Pat Paulsen to the White House! He has to sleep somewhere!"
And then, of course, there is the political theater. Much of the (theoretical) support for Colbert's run comes in the "other politicians are just acting anyway" vein, and this line of thinking does have a certain amount of merit.
Alan Keyes, for example, has run for the Republican nomination for Senate in 1988, 1992 and 2004 and for president in 1996 and 2000 despite having no apparent support whatsoever.
In an Illinois speech in 2004 in front of what were most likely confused passersby and tourists who had lost their way, he soberly stated "I cannot promise you a victory, but I can promise you a challenge!" It turned out, of course, that he could promise neither and had no business promising either. (Mr. Keyes recently filed for the Republican nomination for 2008, and literally tens of supporters are excitedly following his candidacy).
While Mike Gravel and Ralph Nader inexplicably begin sentences with the phrase "When I am president," it is refreshingly honest for a candidate - even a candidate who builds his career on a fictional persona - to explain that if one delegate stands up at a convention and pledges a South Carolina vote for Stephen T. Colbert, it will be a victory.
In a guest column for Maureen Dowd in The New York Times on the Sunday before his announcement, Colbert wrote: "I am not ready to announce yet - even though it's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative."
This is the kind of satire and - yes, we'll say it - truthiness that our political process desperately needs.
