Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – Law and Disorder Edition

More news from the campaign/book trail/tour. A taste of the zeitgeist for Saturday, October 20, 2007.

Campaign Farce Reform
DB touched on this topic earlier, expressing The Nation’s collective eye roll over those who would take this candidacy way too seriously.

Yet, following Radar’s lead, Politico.com analyzed segments of the Colbert Report with legal experts looking for evidence if “Colbert ‘run’ risks breaking law” and noting that the legality of Stephen’s candidacy would depend on whether Stephen was joking or not – something they claim is sometimes hard to tell. (Insert eye roll here.)

Once UPI picked it up it was all over the MSM, causing panic in the streets among fans fearing a black out of ‘The Report’ (as if the writer’s strike wasn’t looming large enough!)

The major questions: How would Comedy Central handle equal access requests from other candidates? Is Comedy Central breaking FEC regulations against corporate contributions?

If you’re interested in the first question, Broadcast Law Blog gives an instructive overview of Equal Access from an author who might have seen the show before.

As for the corporate contributions – MeeVee may have it right when they say, “If we start to take this thing seriously, Stephen Colbert might actually become a legitimate politician with his own legitimate scandal!”

NPR ♥ Stephen
Beyond the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me appearance, Juan Williams talks to Alex Cohen about Candidate Colbert on Day to Day and Terry Gross rebroadcasts her interview with Stephen from earlier this month on Fresh Air, this time including a preface where she is heard eating her words.

A Campaign Strategy
Atlantic.com posts “The Colbert Notion” where Joshua Green takes a look at South Carolina politics, offers to become campaign manager, and lays out a plan for winning Stephen that delegate to a convention in 2008. And it sounds plausible…

Candidate Endorsements
Who’s on the Colbert ’08 bandwagon?

• Colbert’s candidacy brushes other news aside – The State: “Normally, I don’t get involved in politics, but when Colbert’s campaign headquarters opens in the Palmetto State, I’ll be the first in line to help stuff envelopes, make phone calls, put out yard signs and knock on doors. There’s no reason all of us working together can’t help him win both the Republican and Democratic primaries.”
• Bad Nation Summit would solve world’s woes – The Washington Times: “Speaking of elections: Stephen Colbert is running for president, and FINALLY, we have a candidate weird enough for us. Truthiness in 08! He should debate Ron Paul.”
• Sit up and pay attention to Colbert campaign – Seattle Post Inquirer: “There’s purity in what Colbert is doing. He didn’t write his book — “I Am America (And So Can You!)” — to get his feet wet for an upcoming campaign. His campaign is there to sell his book.”

Speaking of Selling Books
The literary campaign continues…

• Nothing is sacred as Colbert reports on the foibles of Americans – Boston Globe: “Colbert may be the funniest man in America. That his biting wit may make us think deeper about our society is just one of this book’s manifold charms.”
• Let ‘Real Man’ take over, Colbert says – Chicago Sun-Times: “Upon hearing the news, we thought a Get to Know Your Candidate interview was in order. But instead of speaking with the erstwhile Second City player and Northwestern grad, we took a shortcut and lifted passages from his book to pair with post-facto questions. Context, you should know, was not an issue.”

The SoHo Apple Appearance
NFZ reader and the voice behind the ColbertCon Podcasts MadMoll commented about Stephen’s appearance at the Apple Store in SoHo on Tuesday – referring to MsInterpreted‘s review of Stephen’ DC appearance:

This was essentially his apple store/soho (NYC) appearance – Allison Silverman’ reading of ‘Soulmate’ was awesome. There were a couple of times during his reading, that Stephen broke himself up – once was when he mispronounced “party”. The apple store appearance is also from what was said going to be their (apple’s) first podcast in their ‘Author’ series.

At that appearance, he was wearing the same suit he wore at the taping – I melted at how complimentary the turqouise shirt he wore was to his skin tone.

While waiting in line to be seated, all the papparazi/press were hanging around as well waiting for him to arrive, when a white stretch limo drove up and stopped in front of the store.we all waited with camera-phones at the ready. The driver exited teh car and came around to the curbside passenger door, stood there, as the press jockeyed to get a picture ot THE MAN. The driver then got back in the car and drove off. A short while later an SUV with Stephen and some others arrived. didn’t stop for picture for the press, just went right in and materialized in the 2nd floor theater. all in all, it was a 90 minute(?) event with both the reading and the interview.

But the BuzzPhoto crew was appearing at the store earlier that evening and being the paparazzi pros they are grabbed a shot of Stephen in aforementioned turquoise shirt.