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Will Stephen Colbert mess up Mitt Romney鈥檚 vice presidential pick rollout?

We ask that question because the late night funnyman was indulging in a bit of his trademark participatory political comedy on the 鈥�Colbert Report鈥� Tuesday night. He鈥檇 picked up on an idea first floated by Tech President blogger Micah Sifry: The Romney folks likely will clean up the Wikipedia page for their pick prior to his (or her) public unveiling. The day before John McCain announced Sarah Palin as the 2008 choice, her Wikipedia page was edited 68 times, .

Mr. Colbert turned that assertion on its head, noting that it meant the chances a person would be picked as VP increase with the number of times their Wikipedia entry gets edited.

鈥淚 like friend of the show Tim Pawlenty,鈥� said Colbert. 鈥淪o to up his chances, I鈥檓 going to get on the old Wikipedia to pump up his edit count.鈥�

, Colbert dragged out his laptop and (pretended) to mess up Mr. Pawlenty鈥檚 info, as one can do with the crowd-sourced Wiki database. He altered 鈥渂orn in St. Paul鈥� to 鈥淪t. Paul is where born Tim Pawlenty was," for example. He changed the former Minnesota governor鈥檚 genealogy to reflect that he was the child of Eugene Joseph Pawlenty and 鈥淢rs. Butterworth."

鈥淚ntending to be a dentist, Pawlenty started his career in Santa鈥檚 workshop,鈥� Colbert wrote. Or said he wrote, while he fake-typed away.

Then came the kicker. Colbert noted that anything you type into Wikipedia becomes reality, and put down that on Aug.10, 2012, Pawlenty was picked as Mitt Romney鈥檚 VP choice.

This is where the messing-with part of the equation enters into it. Colbert urged viewers to follow his lead and vandalize a whole range of Wikipedia pages.

鈥淚 may have designated T-Paw the VP pick, but it doesn鈥檛 have to stay that way folks,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou get on Wikipedia and edit any of these guys鈥� pages to give them the edge.鈥�

This was followed by a graphic of the usual suspects, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and听Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

鈥淥r maybe edit the page of more of a dark horse, like Mitt Romney鈥檚 dark horse,鈥� Colbert concluded, as a photo of Romney鈥檚 dressage equine Rafalca graced the screen.

Colbert鈥檚 own edits may have been pretend, but the Wikipedia hierarchy took his threat seriously. As the Wikipedia talk page on the Pawlenty entry makes clear, to prevent any more Santa鈥檚 workshop-level changes.

They鈥檝e locked and armored the pages of Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, and Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus as well.

And that could end up frustrating the detail-oriented communications folks in Romney鈥檚 HQ.

鈥淭he question now is: Will Wikipedia open the pages in time for the Romney campaign to make edits?鈥� . 鈥淲hile I still think Sifry鈥檚 thesis is flawed, the campaign will almost certainly try to clean up the Wikipedia page of Romney鈥檚 VP before the announcement is made. That is, if they can get past the administrators.鈥�