海角大神

Stephen Colbert鈥檚 exploration of a possible run for the president of South Carolina really takes off Friday. He鈥檚 down in the Palmetto State for a rally at the College of Charleston, where he will appear in some manner with Herman Cain. In recent days, Mr. Colbert has been urging South Carolinians to vote for Mr. Cain as a proxy for himself, since it鈥檚 too late for him (Colbert) to get on the ballot.

鈥淗e is my main man, with a tax plan so fine they called it 鈥�9-9-9,' 鈥� said Colbert during an appearance on MSNBC鈥檚 鈥淢orning Joe鈥� on Friday. 鈥淗e鈥檚 the Mad Max of the flat tax.鈥�

It鈥檚 been, what, a week now since Colbert launched this comedic stunt? So, it鈥檚 not too early to ask the obvious question: How鈥檚 he doing in the polls?

Just fine, thank you. Stephen Colbert is doing better than any other fictional character who is thinking about the race. (Yes, Harry Potter has a higher positive intensity score, but he鈥檚 British, and Britain's possible respondents were confunded.)

Seriously, though, if seriousness is possible here, Colbert has been included in some actual political surveys in recent days. A new nationwide聽Public Policy Polling poll finds he has a higher favorability rating than any actual GOP candidate.

PPP also asked voters about a notional three-way race between Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Colbert. In this scenario, Obama gets 41 percent, Romney 38 percent, and Colbert 13 percent.

Digging into the PPP results, the numbers seem to show that if Colbert decided on a third-party run (OK, we鈥檙e just going along with the jokiness here) he would hurt the incumbent more than the GOP nominee. The majority of his supporters are self-identified Democrats, and PPP has Mr. Obama in the lead on a straight-up race with Romney, 49 percent to 44 percent.

Colbert鈥檚 former "super PAC," now run by fellow comedian/evil mastermind Jon Stewart, has also commissioned an actual poll from an actual pollster, the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.聽In this survey, 18 percent of South Carolina voters say they would be at least 鈥渒inda鈥� somewhat likely鈥� to vote for Colbert, if they could. Among voters who say they are aware of his whole exploratory committee thing, 22 percent say they might vote for him.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt Stephen Colbert鈥檚 potential run for the presidency of the United States of South Carolina is being noticed,鈥� said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, in a press release.

Meanwhile, not everyone sees Colbert鈥檚 meddling with the electoral process as funny and/or a good way to publicize the problems inherent in the current political finance system.

鈥淗e鈥檚 making a mockery of the system,鈥� said Chuck Todd, NBC political analyst, at a university forum on Thursday.

鈥淵es, the process is a mess, but he鈥檚 doing it in a way that feels like he鈥檚 trying to influence it with his own agenda and that may be anti-Republican,鈥� said Mr. Todd, according to an account of the incident on the Huffington Post.