Great political news…or greatest political news?
Last night on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert announced, in essence, plans to give the money and run—that is, give over the ridiculously considerable money and power of his Super PAC to Jon Stewart, and run…for president of the United States.
Technically no official candidacy has been announced (yet), but Colbert certainly hinted that things were heading that way by taking the first step toward a run: announcing the formation of an exploratory committee in his name.
Really, it was always leading up to this anyway, wasn't it?
Colbert made the announcement after taking care of one small roadblock to his would-be run: as his lawyer explained on air, presidential candidates cannot coordinate with Super PACS. And they certainly cannot run their own.
"I wouldn't even want to give the appearance of skullduggery, if that's a word I can say on a family show," Colbert said. Unless, of course, it was to make a point about the gaping holes in our political process—and be damn entertaining in the process.
"I think there might be a guy. Jon?"
At that, Daily Show host Jon Stewart emerged on stage to begin the startlingly simple transfer of power.
"I assume there's reams of complicated paperwork to be executed before we transfer the reigns of power over something as critical to our very foundation as a Super PAC?" he asked. Actually, there's just the one document that both men signed on air.
The duo then held hands and called for the "Colbert Super PAC transfer activate!"
"The Colbert Super PAC is dead," Stewart said. "But it has been reborn as "The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC."
Both men were then reminded that no coordination could take place between them—though Stewart was well within his rights to turn over the production of opponent-smearing campaign ads to Colbert's staff.
And Colbert made sure to mention that it would be easy not to engage in any coordination between the two of them for one simple reason.
"Well, that's easy, I don't know what the hell I'm doing," he said. "From now on, I'll just have to talk about my plans on my television show and just take the risk that you might watch it."
"I don't even know when it's on, 11:30 Monday through Thursday," Stewart replied.
After the stage was cleared, Colbert got down to the business at hand.
"Now that that's all cleared up, nation, I have a major announcement to make. For over a day now, the people of South Carolina have been crying out for someone to restore our nation's former greatness to its current perfection," Colbert said, referencing his high poll numbers in his home state.
"Well, America, that someone is now. I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina.
"I'm doing it. And with your help, and possibly the help of some sort of outside group that I am not coordinating with, we can explore taking this country back."
Oh, we can definitely handle this truthiness. Colbert/Stewart in '12, anyone?