Stephen Colbert has been making a mockery of South Carolina Republicans and their presidential primary for months now, but now it looks like the late-night satirist is actually going to jump into the race himself. A poll this week showed Colbert out-performing Jon Huntsman in South Carolina, and last night Colbert announced on his show that he will be making yet another announcement tonight about his presidential aspirations in the Palmetto State.
On top of that, Palmetto Public Record has exclusively learned that Colbert’s Super PAC, Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, is negotiating a substantial media buy in the Columbia market. Given how expensive commercial airtime is during the primary season, the fact that Colbert would shell out enough money for TV ads can only mean one thing — he’s got something big planned.
Colbert launched a short-lived presidential bid in 2007 from the University of South Carolina’s historic Horseshoe area, but was forced to end his campaign after neither party would let him onto the ballot. If Colbert does enter the Republican primary this time, it would only be as a write-in candidate — but since Mitt Romney has already proven that four years can do wonders for a presidential campaign, you never know.
UPDATE: The Atlantic predicted today that Colbert wouldn’t decide to run, because he’d have to give up his Super PAC. But as Politico’s Mike Allen just tweeted, Colbert got around that little problem by handing control of the PAC over to Jon Stewart!
Watch video of the pre-announcement announcement below:
The Colbert Report
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