Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report"-- who also says he's running to be "President of the United States of South Carolina" -- rushed onstage singing "This Little Light of Mine" before thanking a handful of conservative South Carolina politicians not in attendance, and making fun of the current GOP presidential field.
After a lengthy introduction, he brought in Herman Cain -- his co-host and, as he put it, "the man we're all gathered here to see introduce me." (This assessment ultimately proved accurate.)
Cain, Colbert hammed, is similar to him in many ways: "We both flout convention when it comes to things like taxes and debt and how many Ubekis there are in stan-stan."
But, he added, "he possesses the one thing I don't think I will ever have: A place on the South Carolina primary ballot."
Taking to the stage for his share of the spectacle, Cain was unapologetic about participating in an event that, ostensibly, means to make a mockery of the very presidential race from which he only recently withdrew.
But "the Hermanator," as Colbert referred to him, stopped short of actually encouraging the thousands of young people on hand to actually vote for him.
Part of Colbert's fun makes a serious point about the growth of new Super PAC funding organizations that are spending huge amounts on attack ads on candidates. Political action committees, or PACs, are groups with great clout in U.S. politics that are legally separate from candidates. A Supreme Court ruling in 2010 allows corporations and unions to raise unlimited funds to buy ads that encourage or discourage the election of specific candidates.
"Faced with this tragic lack of corporate influence in our government, five courageous, unelected justices of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the constitutional right to spend unlimited money in political speech," Colbert said.
He was backed by a gospel choir that occasionally chimed in, singing, "Corporations are people," a phrase made famous by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney .
A crowd, comprised mostly of college students, stood in line for up to four hours to get into the event. They held signs that said "Get on the Cain Train" and "Control the bear population" and included a couple of animal rights activists dressed in pig costumes.
Herman Cain at the Stephen Colbert rally here Friday was laughing with him. But he didn’t mind being the butt of jokes, he said, if only Americans could learn how to take one. His message? “As I said in one of the debates, America needs to lighten up.”
Colbert’s message, on the other hand, was as serious as its delivery was lighthearted. Politicians in both parties promise to bring Americans together, but Colbert actually does, through comedy. And this rally on the campus of the College of Charleston, the day before the state’s presidential primary, was an extended riff on the serious subject of money in politics.
With Spanish moss framing the backdrop of a campus that not only looks like an Old South movie set but has served as one many times, the Comedy Central host bounded onstage, sang “This Little Light of Mine,” with a gospel choir as backup, then gave a history lesson.
Calling himself the “ Martin Luther King Jr. of corporation civil rights,” Colbert said that in a time maybe not everyone in the audience could remember — two years ago — corporations were sadly limited in the amount of money they could pour into political campaigns.
Part of Colbert's fun makes a serious point about the growth of new Super PAC funding organizations that are spending huge amounts on attack ads on candidates. Political action committees, or PACs, are groups with great clout in U.S. politics that are legally separate from candidates. A Supreme Court ruling in 2010 allows corporations and unions to raise unlimited funds to buy ads that encourage or discourage the election of specific candidates.
"Faced with this tragic lack of corporate influence in our government, five courageous, unelected justices of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the constitutional right to spend unlimited money in political speech," Colbert said.
He was backed by a gospel choir that occasionally chimed in, singing, "Corporations are people," a phrase made famous by Republican front-runner Mitt Romney .
A crowd, comprised mostly of college students, stood in line for up to four hours to get into the event. They held signs that said "Get on the Cain Train" and "Control the bear population" and included a couple of animal rights activists dressed in pig costumes.
Last week, talk show host Stephen Colbert announced he was running in the GOP primary in South Carolina, and gave control of his very real Super PAC to fellow talk show host Jon Stewart.
Colbert then announced on his show Monday that he's unable to run as a candidate in South Carolina because the state does not allow write-ins in the primary. So he urged his supporters to instead vote for a surrogate candidate: Herman Cain. Why? Because though Cain is officially out of the race, his name remains on the ballot.
Tuesday, Stewart's pro-Colbert PAC released a commercial in South Carolina that urged voters to cast their ballot ... for Cain. None of this came as a shock to Cain, because the businessman is in on the joke.
"On Stephen Colbert’s endorsement of himself as Herman Cain, I find it very clever and humorous, as it should be," Cain told Fox411. "Anyone who finds what Mr. Colbert is doing offensive, should simply lighten up. To be perfectly clear, I will not be assuming Stephen Colbert's identity. We are very different when it comes to the color of our – hair."
Kathy Hoekstra, Cain’s Director of Media Relations, said they were given a heads up that something was happening a few days ago.
"Colbert’s people got in touch with us late last week and Mr. Cain will be taping a segment with Mr. Colbert on Friday in South Carolina,” Hoekstra laughed. “The endorsement of course comes as a pleasant surprise.
Public super PAC coordination On Jon Stewart's program, the issue of coordination was delved into even further, showing that legal super PAC coordination can go beyond simple one-way discussions. Stewart began the discussion by highlighting Mitt Romney's statements that super PACs can't coordinate in any way. “I’m not allowed to communicate with a super PAC in any way, shape or form," he said on MSNBC. "My goodness, if we coordinate in any way whatsoever we go to the big house."
Not true, however. To explain the legal loophole that allows coordination between super PACs and candidates, he brought on Colbert to discuss, as he put it, the" loop-chasm." "I can't tell you but I can tell everyone through television," Colbert said. Though the legal technicality that Colbert was explaining may not have been completely clear, he was referring to federal election law that states that coordination between candidates and super PACs is legal if it comes from a "publicly available source." In this case, that public source is television and he and Stewart talked to each other to great comedic effect:
The super PAC safety net Last of all, Stewart asked lawyer Trevor Potter what would happen if he ever had to pay a fine in the event where he actually did illegally coordinate with Colbert. As Potter notes, it could be in the "four to six figure" range. That was a terrifying prospect to Stewart until he realized he could just use super PAC money to pay the fine. Viola!
It's hard to imagine a kid getting a swifter, more emphatic lesson in the importance of answering when opportunity knocks than 14-year-old Thomas Horn, breakout star of the new film "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."
Just 15 months ago, Thomas, then an East Bay eighth-grader, came home to find a phone message from his school's secretary informing his family that a Hollywood casting agency was trying to track him down. It turns out Thomas' appearance - and $31,800 win - that summer on "Kids Jeopardy!" had grabbed the attention of producer Scott Rudin ("The Social Network").
Thomas' father first thought the message might be a prank. "We were bemused, I guess, when we got the call from Hollywood," says the whip-smart boy, sitting on a bayside bench at Jack London Square during a recent interview. "We didn't know anything about the entertainment industry or even what a casting agency was. But I thought, what do I have to lose? It's not every day a great opportunity presents itself."
Based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the movie follows 11-year-old Oskar Schell (newcomer and former young “Jeopardy” champ Thomas Horn), a borderline autistic loner who loses the father he idolizes (Tom Hanks) in the World Trade Center attacks. Trying desperately to find some logic in the senseless, Oskar stumbles on a key that may unlock a final message from his father, and begins a two-year quest that seems to drive him away from his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock).
“People will have to make up their own minds whether the time is right or whether a story should or shouldn’t be told or what can and cannot be depicted,” Daldry says.
“But for me, it just felt like the decision about making a film — do you want to spend two years of your life getting into this subject? And for me it was also. I suppose it was also a cathartic experience to go into that, and to go into that with as much detail and depth as I could possibly muster.”
Whether American moviegoers are ready to relive Sept. 11 is an open question. “Loud” opened to decidedly mixed reviews. Warner Bros.’ marketing makes it clear that it is not a 9/11 movie.
Stephen Colbert -- host of "The Colbert Report" and unabashed right wing radical -- is now considering running for President of the United States of America.
Simply put: Colbert must be stopped! He is an existential threat to our way of life and to the exceptional nature of our nation.
I know some will dismiss the threat posed by Colbert -- these apologists will defend him as "harmless" or say he's no more than "a charismatic speaker" -- but that is exactly what they said about Hitler.
We need to wake up to the fact that Colbert's poll numbers in South Carolina -- the location of the next Republican primary -- are rising. He is now at 5%, placing him ahead of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.
Yes, some will scoff at Colbert running ahead of Huntsman -- a candidate running below the margin of error in some polls, meaning he may have zero support or may actually owe votes -- but keep in mind that in the recent Iowa caucus, Huntsman received 745 votes.
Translation: Colbert is for real.
Colbert has not been hiding his extreme views. Night after night (or four nights a week to be exact) Colbert has been spewing his venom. However, for some reason, the media have given him a free pass.
But that ends now. Here are Colbert's positions on the key issues -- I warn you, they are scary:
-- Unemployment: "Suck it up, unemployed. It is your own damn fault that you don't have a job ... So stop scapegoating Wall Street." Do we really want an American president who sides with Wall Street over workers?
That being the case, Colbert would want to find the earliest primary he could qualify for, says Sides. He’ll also want to find an open primary—one where independents and Democrats can vote. Finally, he’ll want to find one that distributes its delegates proportionally, rather than giving them all to whoever gets the most votes.
That leaves one state: Texas. Normally the state would hold its primary on March 6, Super Tuesday, and its filing deadline would have been Dec. 19. But last month a federal court approved a plan to push it back to April 3 so a legal battle over redistricting could get sorted out.
What’s bad news for Rick Perry is good news for Colbert. Texas’s filing period will reopen on a date yet to be determined, then close again on Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. Colbert couldn’t ask for a better state. Texas has an open primary, and in another break for him, this year it made its primary fully proportional. That means if enough of Colbert’s fans flock to the polls and ask for the Republican primary ballot, there’s a slim chance he could score a few delegates.
And with a GOP filing fee that’s $30,000 cheaper than South Carolina’s, Colbert doesn’t have the same excuse he used in 2007. Of course, the Texas Republican Party could always just bar him from the ballot, as the South Carolina Democrats did during his previous run.
Stephen Colbert is putting his money where his mockery is — or, at least, his super PAC is.
On his Comedy Central show Thursday night Colbert announced “an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork” for his “possible candidacy for president of the United States of South Carolina.” He also handed control of his super PAC, Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, over to his colleague, Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show.”
ABC News has learned that the group is already buying up television air time in South Carolina. A source tracking ad buys in early primary states told ABC that the super PAC has purchased nearly $10,000 worth of time on a broadcast station in the Charleston, S.C. area between Jan. 15 and Jan. 19.
Stewart is a producer on "The Colbert Report."
Colbert turned to Potter for guidance.
“Being business partners does not count as coordination, legally,” the attorney explained.
With Colbert and Stewart’s signatures on a single legal document, Colbert is now legally on his way to a legitimate presidential run, according to his lawyer.
“Now that that’s all cleared up, I have a major announcement to make,” Colbert said. “I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for possible candidacy for president of the United States of America of South Carolina.”
As red, white and blue balloons dropped from the ceiling, Colbert triumphantly cheered, “I’m doing it!”
Colbert is a native of South Carolina. Although the filing deadline to run in the GOP primary there is past, Colbert, who said he is polling at 5 percent in the state, could undertake a write-in candidacy.
Stephen Tyrone Colbert, born May 13, 1964 is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.
Colbert originally studied to be an actor, but became interested in improvisational theatre when he met famed Second City director Del Close while attending Northwestern University. He first performed professionally as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City Chicago; among his troupe mates were comedians Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, with whom he developed the critically acclaimed sketch comedy series Exit 57.
Colbert also wrote and performed on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the cult television series Strangers with Candy. He gained considerable attention for his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet. It was his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's news-parody series The Daily Show, however, that first introduced him to a wide audience.
In 2005, he left The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to host a spin-off series, The Colbert Report. Following The Daily Show's news-parody concept, The Colbert Report is a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows such as The O'Reilly Factor. Since its debut, the series has established itself as one of Comedy Central's highest-rated series, earning Colbert three Emmy Award nominations and an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2006. Colbert was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2006.[10] His book I Am America (And So Can You!) was No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Although, by his own account, he was not particularly political before joining the cast of The Daily Show, Colbert has described himself as a Democrat according to a 2004 interview. In an interview at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Institute of Politics, he stated that he has "no problems with Republicans, just Republican policies". He is also a practicing Roman Catholic and Sunday school teacher.
Colbert lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife, Evelyn McGee-Colbert, who appeared with him in an episode of Strangers with Candy as his mother. She also had an uncredited cameo as a nurse in the series pilot and a credited one (as his wife, Clair) in the film. McGee-Colbert actually met Jon Stewart, later a good friend of Colbert, before she met her husband in 1990. She is the daughter of prominent Charleston civil litigator Joseph McGee, of the firm Buist Moore Smythe McGee. The couple has three children: Madeleine, Peter, and John.[106] Colbert prefers, however, that his children not watch his show, The Colbert Report, saying that "kids can't understand irony or sarcasm, and I don't want them to perceive me as insincere".
On the 7 April 2009 edition of The Colbert Report, Colbert was ceremonially knighted by Queen Noor of Jordan, a guest on the show. The Queen had been invited to appear to promote the Global Zero Campaign, an effort aimed at eliminating nuclear weapon reserves worldwide. The knighting was done at Colbert's semi-facetious request, as an exchange for his signature on the Global Zero declaration, which the Queen had requested. Queen Noor hesitated, commenting that until that point she had only knighted some of the children of her friends, at the parents' request, but never an adult. In his own defense, Colbert jokingly responded, "I have an infantile mind," and "I was needy as a child."
Queen Noor agreed, and asked Colbert if he had a sword on hand for the knighting. Colbert responded, "I'm way ahead of you," and brought out a prop sword from under his desk. Queen Noor knighted Stephen Colbert, and in exchange Colbert signed the Global Zero declaration.
