Colbert energizes dismal political season

President of the United States of South Carolina

Cable and network programming won't change much in 2012, but the space in between the shows will.


Thanks to Super PACs, which came about when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, it will be the worst election year on TV in history. 


Thank goodness I'm downsizing my cable plan to PBS and the usual suspects.


Instead of ads for erectile dysfunction, we'll be pummeled instead by vicious, political attack ads that will force us to change channels as fast as possible, which could lead to median nerve damage in the channel-changing hand. 


Even the Olympic Games this summer will be tarnished by ads comparing Obama to Hitler and Romney to Jesus.


TV/cable networks hype the presidential race so much because they make a killing off these "hate" ads.


It is left to newspapers, which no longer make money off federal political ad campaigns, to sort out what's true and what's false. It doesn't matter anyway because no one pays attention to what newspapers print.


TV/cable networks don't bother to even explain what is real or fake because they let "you decide."


It is left to comedians like Stephen Colbert to do the job that mainstream media is incapable of doing: Mocking the political process that is mocking democracy.


Colbert formed a Super PAC called "Making a better tomorrow, tomorrow." He even collected money from devoted fans of his Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report."


He then made ridiculous, but hilarious commercials to run in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, so far.


Check out this link for Colbert's classic political ads.



But then, even though Colbert's not running for president, he polled better than Jon Huntsman in South Carolina. This forced Huntsman to drop out of the race and led Colbert to form an exploratory committee to consider possibly running for "President of the United States of South Carolina."



This meant he could no longer "coordinate" with his Super PAC. He ceded control of it to someone he does not "coordinate" with: Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," which airs just before "The Colbert Report."


Hence, the new name of his Super PAC: "The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC."


Colbert, apparently, is having an impact on the "process." 


He appeared on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," a show usually devoted to more "serious" political discourse. 


When Stephanopoulos asked Colbert if he believed Mitt "The Ripper" Romney was a "serial killer" as alleged in one of his Super PAC ads, Colbert calmly responded: "I don't know if Mitt Romney is a serial killer. That's a question he is going to have to answer."


Even the Christian Science Monitor weighed in with an article titled, "Ron Paul: Are his voters being stolen away by Stephen Colbert?"


Colbert can't get his name on the South Carolina ballot and no write-ins are allowed either. So, he's doing the next logical thing, he's asking everyone in S.C. to vote for Herman Cain, who dropped out of the race last month, in order to gauge his support.


Also, Colbert is holding a rally with Cain tomorrow in S.C. 


It is so wonderfully wacky and surreal.


Colbert and Stewart are the only ones making any sense out of our senseless political process. 


Consequently, they're the only ones worth watching during this dreary election season.