As many of you have heard, Stephen Colbert has decided to seek the presidential nomination in the South Carolina primary. What makes this interesting, however, is that he is going to run as a Democrat and a Republican! What better way to confirm what we have been saying all along, that politics-as-usual is dead. Done. Gone. Through. Over.
Mr. Colbert's campaign hits the heart of what many Americans believe -- we are tired of get-nothing-done politicians who can't resolve any of the crucial issues that are facing our country.
As you know, Unity08 requries a ticket formed of members from two different parties. The "Unity Ticket," as we call it, could be a Democrat and a Republican or an Independent and a Republican, for example. If Colbert decides to run with himself as his running mate, do you believe that he will be able to find common ground within himself to help reunite our country?
Also, we will ask the candidates that are seeking the Unity08 nomination to name a team of leaders that will potentially make up their cabinet. Mr. Colbert, who will you seek as your Secretary of State? Who will be your Attorney General? Will you appoint a Secretary of Truthiness?
We write about this in good humor, of course, but we like that Mr. Colbert is pointing out many of the same problems that we believe exist with the current political system. His talk of running in the South Carolina primary ranks right up there with the woman in Florida who recently emailed me about how she succesfully registered her dog to vote using his paw print as a signature.
I guess Mr. Colbert listened to the results of our poll asking whether he should run. Now, let's see if he listens to what our members have said about who he should run with.
Technorati Tags: 
unity08, election, president, government, bipartisan, politics, news and politics, stephen colbert
Subscribe
Anything gimmicky poses a threat to what we really need right now ..
2 Seasoned Veterans whose abilities are respected by both sides of the aisle, running on An Agenda For Reform That Clearly Identifies and Addresses our Most Crucial Issues in an Intelligent & Timely Manner ..
Sam Nunn, Prez, Newt Gingrich VP
Alternates Michael Bloomberg Prez, Newt VP
I also like Huckabee - He's a Sleeper and a good one
If I had to pick a Bipartisan 1 Rep 1 Dem Huckabee/Biden
pete(popo)evans
Newt would be a cancer to anything that intends to be bi-partisan or centrist. He *is* the republican party insofar as he was it's core in the 1990s. No person who has any democratic leanings would ever consider voting for him. For that reason alone he'll never ever appeal to the center. Not to mention that he's not going to bail on his party to run as an independent anyway.
-GP (gp.in.minnesota@gmail.com)
Join the Unity08 Delegate wiki today! http://www.unity-usa.org
Not gimmicky - Politics in America has always been Theater.
The designation of the type of theater is open to debate:
Is it:
Dada
Improv - Long Form
Melo-Drama
Tragedy
Performance Art
Colbert is Performance Art
The traditional definition of Politic is according to Webster:
2 : characterized by shrewdness in managing, contriving, or dealing
3 : sagacious in promoting a policy 4 : shrewdly tactful
the stem of the word, is from the Greek: 'politikis' or CITIZEN
In this wise, Dr. Colbert is as any other citizen running for office.
To say that he 'trivializes' the process misses the point - quite the contrary the process has been trivialized for years. I presume you are old enough to remember when Pat Paulsen ran for President - in 1968, I believe, he finished second in the NH Democratic Primary. Paulsen
Dr. Colbert follows in this tradition.
There is a legacy of political theater in this country, we should embrace it - especially if it piques the interest of the disinterested.
I think this raises my point eactly.
The Pat Paulsen campaign was a comedic deviation for many people.
Colbert can do what he wants to and it may be humorous to many but why would Unity 08 want to waste valuable resources on promoting someone that has zero chance of winning anything?
Unity 08 does not have the vast resources that the top candidates have access to and to promote someone that can not be taken seriously by many people will not help Unity 08 to get more resources because potential investors will look at it as just another radical fringe group.
I thought when I signed up for this Unity 08 thing, you folks were going to seriously try to convince candidates to cross the party lines to form a ticket. Maybe it's still early but to be promoting even more candidates that don't have a chance of winning anything to me is wasting resources.
Don't let Dr. Colbert derail you. The idea is to we want your input. after all, the Unity candidate will represent US - Democrat and Republican
Two good candidates that to me sound like they have similar views on several issues are Bill Richardson and Ron Paul.
I won't be derailed by any of this. But if the Unity 08 movement is to be taken somewhat seriously by anyone I think they should be focusing efforts on announced candidates and trying to come up with a pair that will be serious contenders in the election.
Granted the top candidates will not try to embrace this ideology because they the finances to move ahead in the process and so have no good reason to do anything that will appear unusual or different. ie crossing party lines.
So I think Unity 08 should be looking at the candidates who are announced but have a long shot at best of getting the nominations of their parties.
Unless I am missing something I see 2 candidates that have slim chances but seem similar in some expressed viewpoints. They are Bill Richardson and Ron Paul. They get my vote at this point to be the Unity 08 Candidates.
I guess the future water shortage risks can be addressed as a subhead of global climate change. But it needs special attention now because the certainty of future water shortages should force our leaders to encourage urban development in view of water resources in the local area and indeed the larger multistate region. At present development is willy-nilly based on what property is available. The draught in Georgia should provide enough fear (it works, ask Bush) to energize the issue.