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That’s right. After announcing he was a Presidential Considerer on The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert took 15 minutes to soul search before announcing he would run for President in 2008 … in South Carolina:

Everybody and their blog is talking about the announcement today. Here’s a special gathering of some of the more notable mentions of Stephen’s big election announcement last night.

We’ll be watching very closely for evidence of the audience report that Colbert will be filing papers today in South Carolina. The most interesting piece of information today, however comes from the “Crave” blog from cNet.com:

Stephen Colbert announces presidential bid, but is it the truth or truthiness?

Neither Comedy Central nor Colbert’s personal publicist have issued statements on whether the comedian will actually attempt to get on the ballot, which has left many–including South Carolina’s major political parties–on the edge as to whether the announcement should be taken seriously.

“If Stephen fulfills the requirements met in our delegates’ election plan and he actively campaigns in South Carolina, we welcome him to compete,” said Joe Werner, executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, in an interview with CNET News.com. Werner added that representatives from The Colbert Report had placed calls to the state party’s headquarters several weeks ago but that the party thought it was all a joke at the time.

Even the Daily Kos likes the idea … sort of

… Stephen Colbert running for president is full on social and political satire and also a giant publicity stunt. Colbert is a genius, I mean, making him President isn’t really worse then what we have now is it?

As for running mates, his top picks are Mike Huckabee (who has approach Colbert on many occasions asking him to be Huckabee’s running mate) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now that would be interesting.

Imagine if he is able to pull in a delegate or if his fans are able to get him on a ballot in other states. This race is already close enough.

But in the end, it’s pretty much a good idea. It’s going to cause the younger generation to pay more attention to politics. It’s a great way to Get Out The Vote - even if it is only a joke.

The catch to Colbert’s announcement … well - the biggest catch? He wants to run as both a Democrat AND a Republican!

He made a splash with a surprise presidential announcement Tuesday, but can Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert actually get on the primary ballots in South Carolina?

The answer is yes, although it could get pricey.

The fee to be considered for the Democratic ballot is $2,500, while it’s a steep $35,000 to gain admittance into the Republican primary.

Colbert has indicated he will seek to appear on both party’s ballots and the South Carolina Secretary of State’s office confirms a candidate is allowed to run in both primaries.

Whatever the outcome - this is bound to be fun and hopefully expose some of the louts and political hacks in the process.

Popularity: 6% [?]

England were half an hour away from qualifying for Euro 2008, putting behind their poor start in qualifying, choice of manager, team selection debates, and goalkeeping errors. Then it happened. The bottom fell out with a silly Wayne Rooney tackle and another Paul Robinson blunder in goal. McClaren reacted in a panic, bringing on Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch too late to make an impact. And now Russia
are in the driver’s seat with a 2-1 victory.

England’s Euro 2008 qualifying hopes were wrenched out of their own hands as they crashed to defeat in Moscow. The result means Steve McClaren’s side must now beat Croatia at Wembley next month and hope Russia stumble in their remaining games against a hopeless Andorra and an Israel side with nothing to play for.

The Russia substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko grabbed both of his team’s goals in a four-minute spell in the second half, cancelling out Wayne Rooney’s delightfully volleyed first-half opener.

Of course the focus will be on the ineffectiveness of Lampard, the hapless Paul Robinson and the “plastic pitch” - an advanced FieldTurf surface which bears no resemblance to the awful Astroturf surfaces of the 70’s and 80’s - instead of maybe focussing on the overrated Wayne Rooney who scores only for his club, and seems to always make boneheaded decisions that cost England. How many penalties and red cards, hot headed challenges, and ineffective play is worth his supposed special talent? Michael Owen and Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch have yielded much better results for England while Wayne Rooney tries to play left back.

Perhaps one can blame McClaren for putting him in the lineup with Owen instead of trying a better combination - as well as sticking with Paul Robinson even with his poor club play (can you remember successive clean sheets for Tottenham?). There’s also keeping the Gerrard/Lampard combination for too long. All topics for spirited debate over the next month until Russia kick off against Israel. Just don’t blame the surface.

UPDATE (10:39pm Paris time):  France’s Thierry Henry has just put 2 past Lithuania with 10 minutes to go - this coupled with Scotland doing what they do and choking against Georgia and their 17 year old keeper means that neither England nor Scotland now look favorites to go through. I wonder what this means for ESPN’s viewership for the Euro 2008 next summer. At least one good piece of news came out. The US finally won in Europe. Michael Bradley scored the only goal against Euro co-host Switzerland to win 1-0. Freddy Adu almost had another.

Popularity: 14% [?]