Hail to the Chief

It should come as no surprise to you all, that I consider Stephen Colbert to be my mentor in the world of political commentary – and more recently in the running for President stakes. Colbert started out as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show back in ’97, but was launched on a solo juggernaut in 2005 with the debut of his own show: The Colbert Report. Those of you unfamiliar with his work should do yourself a favour and get familiar with it – the man’s a comic genius. His show is basically faux news, mocking the bevy of political pundits that make their living clogging cable news channels in the US (and increasingly here). Though he describes himself as "well-intentioned, poorly informed high-status idiot" his parodies are generally on the money and the show overall is surprisingly informative.

So, given that he was already top of my hero food-chain I didn’t know where to look when Colbert threw his hat into the Presidential Ring for 2008. Prompted by his adoring fan base, some sections of the media and his own supercharged ego, Colbert announced his run on The Daily Show wheeled in on a carriage drawn by Uncle Sam. Surprisingly to many, the ‘campaign’ began developing elements of semi-seriousness: A campaigning weekend in South Carolina, a filed Democrat application to be on the primary ticket in that state and polling numbers suggesting he was ahead of many other (lower tier) legitimate candidates (these were contrasted against less serious elements, such as his Doritos’ sponsorship and chosen running mate - himself).

Unfortunately, the buzz that had started to build around Colbert was quickly quashed by the kill joys at the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council who voted 13-3 to reject his application. Part of their reasoning that Colbert was not ‘a viable candidate’ may have been justified given that he only planned to run in one state – but some media reported that the ‘real’ candidates had intervened to suppress his growing popularity. Whatever the case, it was a disappointing turn of events. (As an aside, Colbert also planned to run as a Republican but couldn’t afford the ludicrous $35,000 filing fee!!)

In honour then of Colbert’s aborted run, and as a reminder to be better prepared for my own, the right hand side-bar now contains the Colbert 08 Memorial Boards. The ‘On Notice’ and ‘Dead to Me’ boards are one of my favourite jokes from his show – if you wrong him, you get put on notice, and if you persist then you’re dead to him. A simple, effective and hilarious system. You will note that my absentee (non-posting) ministers are already on notice, as is work choices and you the voting public (more on that later). Tony Abbott of course, is long dead to me.