Comedian Stephen Colbert, who recently announced he would run for U.S. president as both a Democrat and a Republican but only in the state of South Carolina, scored 13 percent in a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports. 

The national telephone survey found that 13 percent chose Colbert as an independent candidate in a race against Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York mayor Republican Rudy Giuliani.

Colbert received 12 percent support when former Sen. Fred Thompson was suggested as the Republican candidate. (Clinton won both match-ups in the poll.)

The host of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central declared his newfound political intentions last week and clarified his position a few days later, telling NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “I don’t want to be president. I want to run for president. There’s a difference.”

One possible outcome he envisions is winning enough votes in the Democratic primary in the state to have a single delegate to the party’s presidential convention.

“Because if, at the Democratic National Convention, somebody has to stand up and say, ‘The proud state of South Carolina, the Palmetto state, the home of the greatest peaches and shrimp in the world, casts one vote for native son, Stephen Colbert,’ I’d say I won,” Colbert said on Meet the Press.

Whether or not it’s a joke, his plan has attracted quite a bit of media attention, including reports that his run could violate federal election laws and cause trouble for his show, its corporate sponsors and Comedy Central.

“The Federal Election Commission doesn’t have a great sense of humor,” Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign finances, said to ABC News. 

– Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst 

– Photo credit: Hyungwon Kang

Don’t confuse Republican presidential candidate John McCain with the old counterculture society that brought us the Woodstock concert in August 1969.

The 71-year-old senator from Arizona has made a television ad to run in the early voting state of New Hampshire on Thursday criticizing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for backing a project to spend $1 million on a Woodstock concert museum in Bethel, New York. (The federal funding effort has since been abandoned.)

In the ad, McCain says he was busy during the summer of ‘69 concert — a U.S. prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam.

The advertisement captures the moment from a Republican debate in Florida last Sunday when McCain ridiculed Clinton and the Woodstock project.

“Now my friends, I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event,” McCain says, as Republican front runner Rudy Giuliani roars with laughter.

“I was, I was tied up at the time,” McCain says.

The picture moves to black-and-white video of a younger McCain strapped to a prison bed. The Navy pilot was shot down in 1967 and spent five-and-a-half years as a POW.

The ad covers many fronts. It reminds voters of his national security credentials, takes a shot at the Democratic front-runner and revives his concerns about government spending in Washington.

“No one can be president of the United States that supports projects such as these,” McCain says.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer shot back:

“Sen. McCain should focus more on explaining to New Hampshire voters why he supported the fiscally irresponsible Bush policies that squandered a federal surplus and left us with the largest deficit in American history. As president, Sen. Clinton will reverse those policies and restore the nation to fiscal responsibility,” he said.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who lost a bruising race last year despite being the No. 3 Republican in the Senate with strong conservative credentials, is turning his energies to writing.
 
Santorum, who has been a commentator on Fox News Channel and a consultant at the Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC law firm, will pen a column every other Thursday for the Philadelphia Inquirier called “The Elephant in the Room.”
 
In 2003, Santorum came under fire for remarks he made about homosexuality that were interpreted by some as comparing it to incest, bigamy and adultery. He later said they were taken out of context and the comments referred to a case before the Supreme Court. 
 
Democrats managed to oust Santorum by running a candidate who was against abortion rights, Bob Casey.
 
The Inquirer will run a second column by George Curry on alternating Thursdays with Santorum. Curry is the former New York bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune and former editor of Emerge magazine.

Democrats hoping to add to their slim 51-49 majority in the U.S. Senate next year were dealt a rare setback on Wednesday when former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey decided against running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel. 
 
Republicans must defend 22 seats next year and many political experts are forecasting that Democrats could pick up a few seats. Nebraska has been seen as a possible pickup since the state’s other senator is a Democrat, Ben Nelson.
 
“The reason is simple enough: For my family and me now is not the time for me to re-enter politics as a candidate,” Kerrey said. He has a wife and three children, one of whom was born the day before the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Kerrey, who is president of New York’s New School and was an active member of the 9/11 Commission, said while he was opting against a Senate bid, he was not swearing off politics.
 
“I am deeply troubled about the direction of our country,” he said in the statement. “For my part I will continue to engage in the public issues of the day and to serve in ways that contribute to the solution of public problems.”

Former Bush administration Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is the biggest name so far among Republicans running but is facing a primary challenge from the state’s Attorney General Jon Bruning and a businessman Pat Flynn.
 
“Any Democrat considering a run in a red state like Nebraska against Republican heavyweights like Sec. Johanns and Jon Bruning has to be more than a little intimidated — even someone like Bob Kerrey,” said Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
 
Other Democrats considering a bid for the seat include Mike Fahey, Omaha’s mayor, and Scott Kleeb who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006. 

“While Nebraska Republicans are locked in a nasty primary, we look forward to the Democratic Party fielding a strong nominee who can provide the change Nebraskans are demanding,” said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

– Photo credit: Larry Downing (Kerrey at a 9/11 Commission meeting in the Senate) 

The Financial Times suggests the more than four-year-old war in Iraq is fading as a hot issue in American voters’ minds for the 2008 presidential election, citing fewer casualties in the last three months and growing concerns about Iran.

An excerpt:

The principal beneficiaries are John McCain, the erstwhile Republican frontrunner, who has loudly supported George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge, and Hillary Clinton, whose vote in favour of the 2002 Senate resolution authorising war had been a bitter point of contention among grassroots liberals on the campaign trail.

“Until recently the conventional wisdom was that the 2008 election would be dominated by the Iraq war,” says Philip Gordon, fellow at the Brookings Institution, a research and policy organisation, who is advising Barack Obama’s 2008 bid. “But the situation in Iran is moving much more quickly and that is where President Bush’s decisions could have consequences for whoever takes over in January 2009.”

A CBS survey of registered voters released last week asked what was the one issue they would like presidential candidates to address and Iraq edged out health care, 26 percent to 25 percent. 
 
Other polling data suggest Iraq is far from being erased from voters’ minds. A Marist College poll done in New Hampshire earlier this month showed that among Democrats Iraq was still the dominant issue among voters, 30 percent versus 23 percent for health care. Meanwhile, for Republicans it was third (14 percent) behind security against terrorism (26 percent) and the economy (18 percent).
 
What do you think, is the Iraq war fading as an issue?

– Photo credit: Mohammed Ameen

Well, not exactly the butter cow, but the former long-time sculptor of the state fair’s popular full-size buttery bovine, is backing Democrat Barack Obama in the November 2008 presidential election.

In election years, the Iowa State Fair attracts candidates like bees to honey for an opportunity to mingle with Iowa voters and be seen eating unusual treats like deep-fried cookies or a pork chop on a stick.

An Iowa dairy farmer, Duffy Lyon, sculpted the butter cow for 46 years until giving way to a successor in 2006. The cow is made out of 600 pounds of pure cream Iowa butter sculpted over a wood, metal, wire and steel mesh frame.

In a radio ad released by Obama’s presidential campaign, Lyon throws her support to the Illinois senator, citing his plans for helping rural America.

“You know, you see a lot of manure in our line of work,” Lyon says. “It’s a lot like politics. You got to know what’s bull and what’s for real.”

It seems long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich had a near-miss with a unidentified flying object.

So says actress Shirley MacLaine in a book to be published next month, “Sage-ing While Age-Ing.” Publisher Simon & Schuster says MacLaine, who won an Oscar in 1984 for “Terms of Endearment,” explores in the book, among other things, “Are we alone in the universe?”

Apparently not, if the book is to be believed.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that MacLaine wrote that her good friend Kucinich “had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there.”

“Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him,” she wrote.

“It hovered, soundless, for 10 minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn’t comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.”

There was no word from the Kucinich campaign or his Ohio congressional office as to the veracity of the claim.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is taking fire for his upcoming gospel concert tour that includes Donnie McClurkin, who has been an outspoken critic of homosexuality, in a move that could hurt the candidate’s standing among gay voters.
 
However, the Obama campaign showed no signs of backing away from McClurkin’s inclusion on the 3-day concert tour through South Carolina. The concerts also include gospel notables such as Mary Mary and the group Mighty Clouds of Joy.
 
“I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin’s views and will continue to fight for these rights as president of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division,” Obama said in a statement.
 
Since he remains on the bill and, as a result, Obama is taking some hits from the gay community in a blog here and a demand from the gay advocacy group Truth Wins Out for McClurkin to be dropped.  
 
However, it turns out Obama isn’t the only presidential hopeful who has crossed paths with McClurkin. He performed for Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton in 1992 during the Democratic National Convention — but that was before McClurkin’s views on homosexuality became well known to the public in a 2001 book.  

What role does the “F” word play in politics?

With apologies to those who were hoping to read something a bit raunchier, the “F” stands for feminism, and on Tuesday a group of women, all experts in their fields, gathered to discuss what feminism and politics have to do with each other these days.

The consensus was: plenty.

Women belong in politics at all levels not simply for their talent or energy or interests but because they are women, according to experts on the panel, which was sponsored by the Washington-based Women’s Campaign Forum.

“Women do bring different life experiences to the table,” said Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Lewis took special note of “women who have been in the workplace who have seen how you can be treated differently.”

Randi Weingarten, who heads the United Federation of Teachers in New York, a 140,000-member union, was more vehement.

“If you do not have women in elective or political office, the issues that women and familes struggle with never, never, never, never, never get a hearing,” said Weingarten, also a longtime Clinton supporter.

All this comes in a time when many women, especially younger women, do not call themselves “feminists.” The phrase “I’m not a feminist but” is common among women who adopt feminist ideals but reject the label, they said.

“The word has become so pejorative,” said Weingarten.

On the bright side, Lewis noted, the label may be under attack but many of the issues are on the table. “The title has become more controversial, but the agenda has become more mainstream,” she said. 

– Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst

Reuters Television correspondent Jon Decker reports on the past week on the 2008 presidential trail with Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton racking up more endorsements, the growing money war chests for the bruising primary battles and polls, polls and more polls.