Isn’t this race enough of a satire? You have liberals running as conservatives (and arguing amongst themselves who is the most conservative) and people saying that the one conservative isn’t conservative enough. You have Edwards’ hair and Obama’s foreign policy gaffes and you have Joe Biden (whose been way too quite lately — that’s a word that you never thought would be used to describe Joe Biden) And you have a Clinton and Ron Paul and the Paulites. The jokes just write themselves. A satirist in the race is redundant:

Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for president on “The Colbert Report” on Tuesday night, tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.

“I shall seek the office of the President of the United States,” announced Colbert on his Comedy Central show, as red, white and blue balloons fell around him.

Colbert had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country’s highest office – a refusal that often came without any prompting.

Shortly before making the announcement, Colbert appeared on “The Daily Show” (the show which spawned Colbert’s spin-off) and played cagy, claiming he was only ready to consider a White House bid. He entered the studio set pulled by a bicycle pedaled by Uncle Sam and quickly pulled out a bale of hay and a bottle of beer to show that he was “an Average Joe.”

Colbert said his final decision would be announced on a “more prestigeous show,” which turned out to be his own.

“After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call,” said Colbert.

[…]

The comedian said he would run as both a Democrat and Republican. He earlier explained the strategy: “I can lose twice.” He claimed three running mate possibilities: Colbert-Huckabee, Colbert-Putin or Colbert-Colbert.

[…]

In a guest column for Maureen Dowd in Sunday’s New York Times, Colbert wrote: “I am not ready to announce yet – even though it’s clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.”

I wonder who will lose support now that he’s in the race.