According to Breitbart.comStephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, announced Monday that he will no longer pursue his presidential aspirations. This comes after the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council voted to keep him off of the state's primary ballot by a vote of 13-3.
"Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history—only 10 votes—I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle," Colbert said in a statement. "It is time for this nation to heal."
Colbert intended to run only in his home state of South Carolina, a key primary state, and he wanted to run on the Democratic and Republican ballot, so he could lose twice. He later decided not to file with the Republican Party, since it required a filing fee of $35,000, much more than the Democrat's $2,500.
While I do find this whole thing is pretty funny, I really don't think that the presidential election is something to make a mockery of. Even though he had no intentions of winning, he still would have had votes cast for him that could have been used to support a serious candidate, and with the close elections we have had in the last decade, a few thousand extra votes can change who will become one of the most, if not the most, powerful people in the world.
Now I am sure this has caused a few more people to pay attention to the presidential election, it has caused a distraction from what is really important, the stances that the serious candidates take on the issues. I hate to act like the old fogy who ruins everyone's fun, but there are other ways to have a good time without detracting from something as this. I am hoping that, by writing in this blog, our words will spark an interest with someone who completely hated politics before, but now will pay a little more attention because they see how important their civic duty truly is.
2 comments:
You are the old fogy who ruins everyone's fun. Ok, you know I'm kidding or at least I hope you do. I sort of agree with you when you say that Colbert's running in SC was a bit of distraction. However, I am a huge fan of Colbert and I even saw the episode where he was denied on the ballot for South Carolina. I thought it was pretty funny and he handled losing like a true gentlemen...throwing his Dorito bag around and spilling chips all over himself. I understand that the presidential election is a big and serious deal but sometimes you have to shed some comedy on things like that. It's not like it's October 2008 and elections are next month. I understand why your viewpoint is like it is but I think that Colbert did a good job making fun of the elections and also bringing some more attention to them.
I think that Colbert's bid for the Presidency is an illustration of how little the general public knows about politics. While I myself am no expert, I do recognize that there is quite a bit of negotiation that occurs within a party during the nomination process. For a comedian to hop on board and try to win a nomination is ludicrous. The average person doesn't vote in a primary. The people who do are the party activists who are passionate about politics and put a great deal of effort into analyzing a particular candidate. In other words, the are about as likely to hand off the reigns of their party to a person like Colbert as they are to play hockey in the nude. Colbert's bid exposes the embarrassing truth of how stupid the general public is and how politics truly works.
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