The Colbert Campaign

My colleague Josh Green has taken a detailed and un-satirical look at campaign tactics Steven Colbert should employ in South Carolina if he really wants to pick up a delegate or three with his PR-stunt presidential campaign:

In the Democratic primary, Colbert’s best bet is the Second District, which encompasses most of the capital city of Columbia, and, more important, has the highest concentration of college students. Though it’s less Democratic than the Sixth District, it has a far higher proportion of white voters, which, in a Democratic primary, is exactly who Colbert needs to target. Even better, Columbia is its own media market. Colbert probably won’t have Obama-like fundraising prowess. But an Internet campaign ought to be able to raise enough cash to run a few well-targeted ads (here again the drunken-college-student demographic could prove valuable).

In this context, though, a Colbert race is probably objectively pro-Hillary, since his most likely supporters are going to be people whose votes Obama needs.