Looking back: Stephen Colbert's "Run" for President

The bottom line is that this "run" for the presidency was likely an elaborate joke. So he had higher approval ratings then some liberal who is in the race, who cares? He stirred up the political game a bit, and if either of the main parties had a brain then they would have found some way to spin this in their own benefit.

However, I think part of the problem that the democrats had was the reporting done comparing Colbert's run only to the democratic candidates. Wow, he passed a single democratic candidate in the poll numbers, and sure that's embarassing to any party to have a candidate be passed by someone who is just joking around. But I think that their annoyance is somewhat earned because Colbert's polls were never compared to any of the republican candidates (that or the comparisons were never shown). I find it very hard to believe that Colbert did not upsurp the poll numbers of some low running repubican candidate, and I would think that any balanced show should choose to make fun of both sides for being passed up by a fake runner.

That said, I think that the position of president is a horrible thing to run for. The responsibility is insane and the pay is crap for the job that a person should do, about $200,000 a year (I don't really think that Bush has earned his pay, nevertheless passed the requirements for that pay). For that $200,000 a person should be at work almost every single day of the year for four years making decisions that need to positively effect both the country and the world that it occupies, while at the same time taking in all of the considerations of peoples rights. It is a freakin' nightmare, and in order to apply for the presidency a person either has to be; extrememly committed to self sacrificing themselves to make the world a better place, mentally insane to want to do that kind of work and deal with that kind of stress, or power hungry. It is my opinion that most of the people who seriously run for the presidency fall into one of the ladder two of the three catagories.

I agree that Stephen's "run" surely brought the election to a lot of people who would be otherwise uninterested. Furthermore, I think he, or someone like him, would make a fine candidate, worthy of consideration. Sure, he's a comedian, but he's incredibly bright, something we can't say even of our current "president". In addition, I'm a little sick of picking the lesser of two evils. I think the common man needs to have a chance at the presidency. After all, the president should represent and care for the least of us, not the other way around. Let's break the vicious cycle of politics, and get someone in office who ISN'T a millionaire/product of millionaires. Excuse me for saying so but, DUH! We need to shut down that country club in DC, and build a system that truly serves every man and the greater good.