Stephen Colbert is everywhere right now. On his television show The Colbert Report, a parody of Republican talk shows very similar to Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Colbert announced last week that he plans to run for president in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. While intended as satire, a large number of people were seriously interested in the idea, according to a recent national poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm.The firm polled 1,000 likely 2008 voters included Stephen Colbert's name in both the GOP and Democratic primaries. In the Democratic primary, Colbert took 2.3 percent of the vote -- good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent), Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent) and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent. Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).
He was less lucky in the Republican field, where he took less than 1 percent of the vote behind even longshot candidates like Reps. Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani led the Republican field with 29 percent, followed by former Gov. Mitt Romney at 12 percent, former Sen. Fred Thompson (11 percent) and Sen. John McCain (10 percent).
While obviously Colbert will not be president anytime soon, I think that this exercise is a clear demonstration of how well people respond not just to comedy, but to a sense of "truthiness" (to quote the man himself) in the political arena. Because people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are unafraid to point out the flaws of today's politicians, they appeal to people's sense of logic and trust, which is something that is often lacking in other candidates' campaigns due to their struggle to appear as the best of the bunch. Thus, through satire, Colbert and Stewart successfully utilize logos and pathos to outsmart the political game and truly convince a significant portion of America that they are the people to trust when it comes to making sense of it all.
While obviously Colbert will not be president anytime soon, I think that this exercise is a clear demonstration of how well people respond not just to comedy, but to a sense of "truthiness" (to quote the man himself) in the political arena. Because people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are unafraid to point out the flaws of today's politicians, they appeal to people's sense of logic and trust, which is something that is often lacking in other candidates' campaigns due to their struggle to appear as the best of the bunch. Thus, through satire, Colbert and Stewart successfully utilize logos and pathos to outsmart the political game and truly convince a significant portion of America that they are the people to trust when it comes to making sense of it all.
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