Ok, It's time for him to quit his job, or quit this joke.
There's so much conflict of interest here it is definitely not funny.

Say what you will about the candidates in this country, they deserve to be on a ballot with people actually running to win, not with those trying to generate publicity for themselves -- no matter much of a political "critique" goes along with that publicity.

When I saw Jon Stewart treat a dictator like Musharraf with kid gloves, then call Chris Matthews a "fascist," I knew that the "Indecision" brand of political comedy had jumped the shark. With this election stunt, Colbert isn't just jumping the shark, he's feeding the shark the American flag while he does it.

If I were a multi-millionaire entertainer, I hope I would do more for my country than offer it snark and disdain.

Are you going to get Josh Marshall to BAN Stephen Colbert as well?

It would seem that a non-politician might be the perfect antidote for today's inbred politics.

And on the topic of qualified to do the job, would someone care to defend Reagan and/or Schwarzenegger? Not much intellectual horsepower in either one, but both knew how to charm the voters.

All this Colbert business reminds me of a high school student body election when many students did not feel that it did make a difference who won so they ran a joke candidate.

I don't blame Colbert for this because it is great publicity for him and Comedy Central. Real candidates (comparatively) such as John Edwards have tried to glom on to it by engaging Colbert.

I agree that it did not make much difference who won high school elections. Well maybe it did. The winning candidates could put it on their resumes. But this is different.

But many younger voters have that high school election attitude and it helps real (again comparatively) candidates like Ron Paul and fake candidates like Colbert.

Also a long and boring campaign like this one breeds stuff like this. After the nominees are decided in mid-February, there will be eight months of campaigning between the presumptive nominees.

This will lead to more funny stuff like the Colbert candidacy. Colbert himself might even be a third party candidate.

The above story was updated by CNN a little over an hour ago as of this posting time--Colbert declines to file for the Republican primary because it costs too much.

Unfortunately, the whole story is reprinted on the CNN website with only a meagre mention of this latest development in its header.

It appears that Doritos & Comedy Central put together couldn't muster enough $$$ to be considered Republican by the Republicans. Seems to me that this admirer of Nixon & Dubya made a mistake by not soliciting backing from Halliburton and Blackwater.

This joke has past its freshness date. I love Colbert, but this is stupid. Yeah, there are a lot of jokers in politics already ... and lots of dead people around the world due to their actions, also. Let's try to take it seriously, because it is. Comedy Central's "Indecision" riff has always bugged me because at its core, it's more of the Naderite 'they're all the same' bullshit.

Sad to say these comments are note-perfect examples of why Colbert can so easily mock us liberals for taking ourselves far too seriously. Get over yourselves. Every step of Colbert's shtick has been choreographed to needle absurd parts of campaigning, like the whole will-he, won't-he business and the fact that corporations might as well openly sponsor candidates at this point, just as they do sports stadiums. I suspect that, after a little 'campaigning,' Colbert will engineer his campaign's downfall, too. After all, every good mock candidate needs a good mock scandal. Have some faith in the man -- especially since he proved at the White House Correspondents Dinner he could dish out a sharper critique of Bush, to his face, than most Democrats have mustered over the past seven years combined. Sit back, relax, enjoy and, please, for your own sake, switch to decaf.

Thank you dweb you got there before I did.

Reagan was right about not teaching kids history . . .

Orwell/Blair was right about limiting language causing thought to become trivial . . .

Colbert is a guy with the means to make a small statement and the dangly-down bits to do it. Yes this America - He has gotta right. PC offense is as bad as jack-booted thuggery if it squelches the expression of rights.

Actually, Colbert is making the same point that John Edwards made about corporatism and its effects on America . . . And getting television coverge. Does it tick me off that he is stealing votes from my choice in candidates? Yeah . . .

BUT I can also laugh about it.

This will take zero votes away from hillary Clinton. It will widen her margins and inevitability.

Which makes me wonder---but when i do, i come up with nothing.