Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist for October 26, 2007

Well, a zeitgeist is overdue… thank goodness DB and the NFZ crew have been keeping the hot news on the page. It would be impossible to include even a small portion of the news stories and coverage, but here’s a sample of the representative work. In otherwords, here’s the zeitgeist for October 26, 2007.

Smokin’ Polls
WaPo blogged about a poll showing Stephen polling better than some Democratic candidates. MsInterpreted posted about the Rasmussen Reports poll showing double digit numbers for Stephen as a third party candidate. Both polls have been commented on far and wide in the media. Here are just a few samples:

• The Colbert Juggernaut – The New York Times: “In the Democratic debates, is it time to replace Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich with Stephen Colbert? Not only is Colbert funnier, but he’s also polling better.”
• Special Long-Shot Edition – Washington Post: “So a man who plays a right-wing bloviator trumps a governor who has been a congressman, Cabinet secretary and diplomat. Who knew?”
• Stephen Colbert, President of the Twentysomethings – Time.com blog: “In both scenarios, Rasmussen says, Colbert had more support among this age group than the Republican candidate. Whatever turnout ends up being among young voters, this can’t be happy news for Republicans. Instead of running Law & Order’s Fred Thompson, maybe they should be drafting Ben Stein, to go after the Comedy Central vote.”
• Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: Winnowing the Field with Colbert – CQPolitics.com: “How about this new standard for who should get out of the presidential race: Anyone who cannot beat television comic Stephen Colbert in a national survey? “
• The Younger Set – Talking Points Memo: “There’s something appropriate in this. Americans in their twenties would prefer a normal person pretending to be a Republican buffoon than the real thing.”
• Junkie for President! (just imagine the campaign button) – NPR Talk of the Nation: “We’ll drag her [Ann Marie Cox] into the Political Junkie fray, to talk a bit about the fake “news” man’s candidacy, and the dangers of real newsmen taking the funny-bait.”
• New Poll Suggests Stephen Colbert Should Be Frontrunner Within a Month! – Editor & Publisher: “If he keeps gaining over 10% a week, Colbert should be leading the field before November is out.”
• Is Colbert really the people’s choice? – Los Angeles Times: “Joe Werner, executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, says he’s not too worried about Colbert’s run. “Am I concerned the way he is polling? No. It’s not all that surprising,” he said. “Are we taking his candidacy seriously? Well, as seriously as we would anyone of Stephen’s caliber.”"
• Update: Stephen Colbert Proves Maclean’s Right – Macleans: “Just after we ran that story, which theorized that The Colbert Report had become a wacky sitcom based on long-running comedic story arcs, Colbert went and confirmed our theory by announcing the biggest, longest, most elaborate story arc of all: his candidacy for President of the United States. True, he’s only running in his native South Carolina (in both parties’ primaries), but he’s already running ahead of several legitimate candidates. “

Campaign Finance Laws… again.
We here think it’s all pretty much settled that TCR is not going to be taken off the air for FEC violations, and Comedy Central seems happy with their position. And I really wasn’t going to use articles about the issue – unless, of course, they were from the New York Sun and News Busters. Well, look who came through!

• The Colbert Campaign – New York Sun Editorial: “The agency would avoid a good deal of grief by simply ignoring Mr. Colbert or declaring his candidacy “satire” or “commentary.” But by ducking the issue, the FEC would be conceding quite a bit as to the foolishness of the laws. What becomes clearer by the episode is that money and in-kind contributions are overregulated in America and that a government agency is in no position to judge what’s satire and what’s not. Mr. Colbert’s joke’s on the idea of federal campaign speech regulation in the first place.”
• Colbert Fake Campaign May Be Illegal – News Busters: “It’s just as well. Like NBer Kathleen McKinley, I can’t help but wonder when Colbert’s humor is going to get old for the liberal-stream media. There is such a thing as overexposure.”

The down side of politics
Well, you can’t always play to the base and sometimes the base gets dissed.

• Tough Crowd for Colbert in S.C. – The Trail (WaPo political blog): “Aaron Cohen, one of Colbert’s staffers, politely requested permission for Colbert to bring his weeks-old campaign to her beauty shop. Bell quickly researched Colbert’s candidacy, and learned that he is running only in South Carolina and on both the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets while pushing his new book “I am America (And So Can You!)”. Bell, who doesn’t play with politics, found Colbert’s campaign decidedly not funny.”
• Romney in MB, addresses delegates issues – Myrtle Beach Sun News: “As he was leaving, Romney was asked by The Sun News what he thought of the idea of having Stephen Colbert, the late-night comedian who recently declared his presidential candidacy, as his running mate. “Probably not my first choice,” he said.”
• Colbert Offends Strap-on Voter Bloc – Radar On-Line: “Apparently, the Colbert Nation maintains a strict policy on immigration. At Stephen Colbert’s reading and book signing at the Union Square Barnes and Noble in Manhattan Wednesday night, the faux pundit and allegedly real presidential candidate effectively shot down the “Missile Dick Chicks.”"

When you run for president, (almost) everybody loves you.
Who’s singing Stephen’s praises?

• Matthews: SNL, Colbert, Stewart ”The Editorial Cartoonists of Our Time’ – FishBowlNY: “Even after taking a drubbing from Jon Stewart, the good-natured Chris Matthews had only positive things to say of the quintessential New York satirist and his cohort Stephen Colbert as well as the gang at SNL.”
• George Carlin with Keith Olbermann – Countdown with Keith Olbermann (via onegoodmove.org): George Carlin praises Stephen during interview with KO.

BandWagoning
Everyone wants to jump on the Stephen Colbert campaign bus.

• Why did 677,523(+) people join a Facebook group about Stephen Colbert? – SeattlePI: “Even if they’re not serious about supporting Colbert, many members do seem serious about what Colbert stands for — what they see as a poignant and intelligent disregard for the punditry of politics. Before I started, I decided to post at least a snippet from every response. So if you want to know why more people would join a group supporting a comic presidential candidate than a serious one, read on.”
• Expertinent: How Colbert Could Win the White House. Step One–Rent ‘Man of the Year’ – Newsweek: “Stumper talked to “Man of the Year” writer and director Barry Levinson (“Diner,” “Rain Man,” “Good Morning, Vietnam”) about the appeal of a comedian candidate–and the one thing Colbert shouldn’t do if he wants to, um, win.”
• Foxy Network – Slate.com: “Meanwhile, David Asman, host of America’s Nightly Scoreboard, has spent a disproportionate volume of time discussing matters related to Stephen Colbert…”
• A chat with Seattle’s own “8-bit” composin’, guerrilla filmmakin’ “Colbert Girl” – SeattlePI: “The beauty of Colbert’s huge fan base is that he doesn’t have to do it alone. That’s where Ramadan comes in. When she saw Colbert announce his candidacy on his show last week, she knew she could give the campaign one element it hadn’t parodied — its own “Obama” girl.”

Six Degrees of Stephen Colbert
The Daily Show, Ed Helms, and Harvey Birdman

• A Look Back at Jon Stewart’s Greatest Gay Moments – AfterElton.com: “What sets Stewart apart, aside from his tremendous mainstream popularity, is that his humor conveys a deeply-rooted sense of personal outrage at anti-gay policies, laws, and attitudes.”
• Ed Helms and Tony Hawk Share a Moment – CCInsider: “Daily Show alum and Office star Ed Helms makes an appearance on Funny or Die sister site Shred or Die, and gets to live out a 13 year-old fantasy. Now, Shred or Die’s content seems to consist mostly of Tony Hawk video clips and half-pipe-related humor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But so help us, if Tony Hawk starts doing standup…”
• Capcom does smart thing, delays Harvey Birdman game – Joystiq.com (comments): “I wish they were delaying it to add Stephen Colbert. It just won’t be the same without him.”