ASU students and faculty may be ready to "taste the truthiness" of political satirist Stephen Colbert's bid for presidency.
Colbert announced on his Comedy Central television show last week he wants to run as both a Democrat and Republican presidential candidate in his home state of South Carolina.
Since the announcement, more than 500 Facebook.com groups have sprung up supporting his candidacy.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1 million supporters had joined various groups, with Facebook's "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T. Colbert" boasting nearly 900,000 members.
"It's interesting that Facebook works better for him, and faster, than for (Barack) Obama and for the group against Hilary (Clinton)," said Juan Mendez, president of ASU's Young Democrats.
Although Colbert announced he wants to run as both a Republican and a Democrat, Mendez said he thinks Colbert would garner the most votes from Democrats and especially from young voters.
Despite the real announcement of candidacy, he's not sure Colbert's bid is anything more than a publicity stunt, Mendez added.
"I don't know if his character is running for president or if it's a serious effort," he said. "If he were to take more serious steps, I would take it more seriously, too. People would vote for him if he stepped it up a notch."
But Matthew Hindman, an ASU political science professor, said he thinks Colbert's efforts are serious.
"Yes, it's a publicity stunt and yes, there's more to it than that," Hindman said. "It's possible that this fake candidacy will have real-world consequences."
Hindman said he thinks Colbert currently has more support from young voters than any of the GOP candidates.
"That presents a long-term problem with the Republican Party," he said.
Hindman also said he thinks Colbert may pull young Democratic votes away from (Barack) Obama.
"Obama's strongest support is among young voters," he said. "I think this is probably bad news for Barack and good news for Hillary (Clinton), because he's most surely going to take more supporters away from Obama."
Mendez agreed Obama would have the most to lose if he were to go toe-to-toe with Colbert and said he thinks part of Colbert's success comes from his ability to work the media.
"I hate to say it's like a popularity thing," Mendez said. "But people are going to vote based on how many times they see the candidate. And the way Colbert talks to the audience and relates to the audience — people feel they can relate to him."
But Obama may be safe for now as Colbert explained on his show his only current goal is to get on the South Carolina ballot and to gain support from at least one delegate from the state.
Reach the reporter at: sarah.g.owen@asu.edu.
