Last week, comedian Stephen Colbert shocked the media by announcing his intention to explore the possibility of running for President of the United States of South Carolina.
Or somesuch like that.
Because pollsters need something to fill the endless hours between now and November, Public Policy Polling decided to put the question to a test — How would Colbert fare as a candidate in a three-way race with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney?
The answer?
He’d pull 13 percent of the vote.
According to the poll, Obama would win the election with 41 percent of the votes, and Romney would come in a close second with 38 percent.
Colbert, thankfully, is smart enough not to run as a third-party candidate. 🙂
Colbert would draw on two bases of support.
First, he would run strong in the 18-25 voting bloc, to the point where I think he would be in a good position to take that vote. There are many people in that group who would vote for Colbert just so they could say, years later, that they voted for Stephen Colbert. Hell, I might vote for Stephen Colbert if he were to run as a third party candidate; I live in a state that’s certain to go for Obama no matter what. But in some other states, with large college-age populations? Colbert would draw enough support from Obama to possibly flip some lean-Obama states to Romney wins.
Second, he would run strong with far-right conservatives. They seem not to realize that Colbert is sending them up. It boggles my mind, but the conservatives I know genuinely think that Colbert is “one of them.”
Colbert knows that while he would split the conservative vote with, say, Romney, he would also gut Obama’s Millennial support and possibly throw the election to the GOP.
Yes, it’s fun to think about a Stephen Colbert third party candidacy. But it’s not going to happen. :h2g2:
How do you know it won’t happen? Colbert is a man known for pushing the envelope and he may just take it all_the_way. I can 100% honestly say I’d cast my vote for Colbert, given the chance.