I was talking to my co-workers about Colbert's attempt to make a fake run for president and apparently they had this happen a few years ago, except he won. A comedian named Jacob Haugaard ran for parliament and was actually elected to serve. When he was preparing one of his issues included that he hated wind blowing in your face while you were riding a bike, so he promised for wind to blow from your back whenever you rode. He also promised things like changing the weather and putting god back in churches. With a little wikipedia digging I cam across the election results here. Most shocking to me is that the voter turnout rate was 84.3 percent! The US had a turnout of about 55% in 2004 which was one of the highest turnouts in recent history. Also, he ran without a party, try that USA. Granted it was just a seat in parliament and not prime minister or anything, but still, look at that turnout. When elected he actually served his term as well. Though it seems he didn't do anything that remarkable while serving, it got people interested in politics which is very valuable and commendable I think. Our 2004 election had about a 5% bigger turnout than the 2000 election and the election that Haugaard ran also had a 5% turnout bump. If you'll remember the difference in getting out the vote in 2000 vs 2004 I think it was pretty significant. Here, the one guy running caused a similar bump (I realize as I'm saying this I have no idea if it's true, I wasn't here to experience if there was any other significant impetus to vote, but it helps my point if I assume there wasn't). I just read that Colbert got denied the chance to appear on the ballot by the South Caroline democrats which I think is too bad. Colbert has a tremendous following and I think it would really get a lot of people to the voting booths. I'm not sure if this buzz will wear off by next year but I hope and think that there will be a bigger turnout in next years election.