Colbert and Name Recognition

Stephen Colbert may (or may not) (or just may again for the hell of it) run in the South Carolina presidential primary as a Democrat (and a Republican) or (both) or (neither).

This blog is about what people know -- in other words, what they learn (or don't learn) about the correct use of parentheses. Oh, and what and how they learn about politics and public affairs. And Stephen Colbert.

Colbert is serious. He means business. And he will pander beyond compare, and that's saying a helluva lot given the cast of characters we presently have running for the second highest office in the land (after being a Red Sox starting pitcher). Fear him. Let's say for the sake of argument he goes through with it. Let's say he's on the South Carolina ballot, or ballots, in which tens of people statewide will participate come primary time. Who does he hurt? Who does he make cry?

Hell if I know. I live in Georgia.

From an academic PhDweeb standpoint, his candidacy offers all the theoretical juice one could hope for. He's got name recognition. He's got an arching eyebrow. He's got the vote of everyone -- except the bears. Lucky for him he is not running in a state loaded with the huge, dangerous, man-eating mammals. Like New Hampshire or New York or Iowa.

On a serious note, whenever someone like this does toss his arching eyebrow into the ring, it brings a few more people to the table to mix metaphors and pay attention to the campaign. It'll be interesting to see if Colbert's name recognition matches that of other well known candidates.