Colbert is Cat Nip
October 24th, 2007 Posted in Opinion
As most of you have now seen in the news that Stephen Colbert is running for President. You may also have seen it on his TV show when he officially announced it in his typical understated overzealous style.
Needless to say, the various news organizations around North America have all picked this up and are giving him a great PR blitz at the moment. But apart from his continuous plugging on his show, it was hard to see if it was actually working…
Yesterday I was invited to join the ominously titled 1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert. All I can say is I continue to be amazed at how powerful his “Colbert Nation” really is. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.
Keep in mind he announced his candidacy on 10/16/2007
5,000 Members at 4:59 PM (EST) 10/17/2007
10,000 Members at 10:22 PM (EST) 10/17/2007
20,000 Members at 5:26 AM (EST) 10/18/2007
30,000 Members at 12:41 PM (EST) 10/18/2007
50,000 Members at 4:48 PM (EST) 10/18/2007
75,000 Members at 7:30 PM (EST) 10/18/2007
100,000 Members at 12:54 AM (EST) 10/19/2007
170,000 Members at 4:58 PM (EST) 10/19/2007
200,000 Members at 9:43 PM (EST) 10/19/2007
250,000 Members at 11:58 AM (EST) 10/20/2007
300,000 Members at 7:44 PM (EST) 10/20/2007
350,000 Members at 4:43 AM (EST) 10/21/2007
400,000 members at 5:11 PM (EST) 10/21/2007
450,000 Members at 12:16 PM (EST) 10/22/2007
500,000 Members at 5:11 AM (EST) 10/23/2007
550,000 Members at 3:59 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
Impressive as 550,000 members in a week is, nay-sayers quip that those numbers are meaningless as most of those people cannot convert into actual votes for Colbert on election day. Unfortunately for them, several hundred young people, by my count, can and will vote for him. The beautiful thing about his campaign is that it is getting people who do not normally vote to do so. The benefits of that cannot be under appreciated. Even if he is attempting to make the presidential candidates look like fools. (who cares)
Katherine ********* wrote on Oct 18, 2007 at 2:30 PM
I’m actually in Canada at the moment but I will file an absentee ballot if necessary. It’s not “wasting my vote” since I wasn’t planning on voting anyways; I consider myself a conscientious abstainer. I’m very socially liberal and fairly fiscally conservative, so neither of the major parties satisfies my basic expectations, not to mention the flaws within the system itself. I’d rather become politically involved through direct lobbying, campaigning, and interaction with representatives than simply filing a vote for the candidate I consider to be the lesser of two evils. Maybe it’s all futile, but I consider a vote for Stephen Colbert at the very least to be a vote against the current partisan system.
If that wasn’t enough, now the growing online charity DonorsChoose.org has started up a donation ranking for all of the presidential candidates and who is right at the top? Stephen Colbert with just shy of $30,000 which crushes Obama (~$2,000) and Jon Stewart (~$1,000). Speaking of Colbert, Stewart is almost beating out all of the other presidential hopefuls on that list and he isn’t even running!
600,000 Members at 8:06 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
650,000 Members at 11:24 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
700,000 Members at 11:34 AM (EST) 10/24/2007
750,000 Members at 5:31 PM (EST) 10/24/2007
800,000 Members at 9:40 PM (EST) 10/24/2007
850,000 members at 4:22 AM (EST) 10/25/2007
900,000 Members at 3:24 PM (EST) 10/25/2007
950,000 Members at 9:11 PM (EST) 10/25/2007
1,000,000 Members at 5:54 AM (EST) 10/26/2007
THEY MADE IT TO 1,000,000!!!
