Colbert won't appear on SC ballot, by Jim Davenport, AP.
South Carolina Democrats squashed Stephen Colbert's fanciful White House bid on Thursday.
Colbert, who poses as a conservative talk-show host on the Comedy Central cable network, filed to get on the ballot as a Democratic candidate in his native South Carolina. His campaign paid a $2,500 filing fee just before the noon deadline, said state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler.
However, after about 40 minutes of discussion by top party officials, the executive council voted 13-3 to keep the host of "The Colbert Report" off the ballot.
"He's really trying to use South Carolina Democrats as suckers so he can further a comedy routine," said Waring Howe, a member of the executive council. And Colbert "serves to detract from the serious candidates on the ballot."
But state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter told the committee Colbert could showcase the state "in a way that none of the other candidates on the ballot have been able to do."
"I think you're taking this a little too seriously," she said.
I've never been to South Carolina, and I have no immediate plans to visit. To me, the state is one step up from West Virginia, based on nothing but my ignorance. So when I hear that the top Democratic officials in South Carolina are eliminating the only thing that is giving their primary any attention--positive or otherwise--in a desperately overcrowded election, I must roll my eyes, shake my head and wave my fist in the air. Besides Rudy Giuliani's constant 9/11 mentions and Fred Thompson's unwillingness to express defined interest in actually running for President, this is the dumbest, most self-righteous thing I have heard this month regarding the 2008 election. The month of November just began today, so I'm sure I'll find something to top this by next week.
Every big state, from Michigan to Iowa to Arizona, is trying to make their primary the most important one. But the Stephen Colbert announcement last month brought attention to South Carolina, a state that 1) I did not realize John Edwards was also from until now, and 2) I did not know had a primary at all. If I didn't know these facts, and I've been paying so much attention to this Presidential race and US politics in general, how many other people have become interested in this election, primaries and South Carolina based solely on Mr. Colbert?
As if Stephen Colbert would sully the name of South Carolina Democrats. Those people need to get over themselves.
