Colbert is Doing It

Comedian Stephen Colbert is running for president in South Carolina, his home state, and other candidates’ campaigns are doing their best not to appear square.

Here’s Terry Sullivan, state campaign director for Republican Mitt Romney:

“I’m shocked Stephen Colbert would run for president. He’s clearly overqualified for the job,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan declined, however, to say if that meant Colbert was more qualified than any other candidate in the race — although he did a let a little nervous laugh slip out.

And the announcement itself:

The NY Times reported Colbert’s reps had reached out to state party officials and Colbert is serious about ponying up $35,000 to run as both as both a Democrat and a Republican.

How would he shake up the race? Could Colbert be the perfect conduit for a protest vote?

If I consult my gut, which I’m sure Colbert would encourage me to do, I see Colbert’s entrance taking away a small number of votes on the Democratic side from people who would ordinarily vote for a change agent like Obama.

On the Republican side of the fence, I fear libertarian candidate Ron Ernest Paul could take a drubbing.

A CNN poll of likely South Carolina primary voters shows Hillary Clinton with 39 percent support to Barack Obama’s 25 percent. John Edwards has 15 percent support.

For Republicans, Rudolph Giuliani leads the poll with 28 percent support to McCain’s 20 percent. Fred Thompson, the third front runner has 17 percent support among voters.

Colbert said he could out-pander them all.