Stephen Colbert clobbers rivals on Facebook

Who has the youth vote cornered? Stephen Colbert. The comedian and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" has inspired more members of the Facebook generation than any other presidential candidate.

Last update: October 26, 2007 - 8:41 PM

They've joined a group devoted to Colbert's campaign to be leader of the Free World on the social networking site in droves; more than a million followers have signed up to support him, with 78 more reportedly joining every minute.

A student from Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School in Montgomery, Ala., started the group "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert" on Oct. 16 after Colbert told viewers of his satirical news show that he intended to get on the South Carolina primary ballot -- as both a Democrat and a Republican.

The group reached its goal Friday, making it the most popular political group on the site by far. It took the group "Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)" more than eight months to crack half a million.

Group administrators bragged at their success relative to a group supporting Barack Obama: "It's taken Obama's 1,000,000 Strong Group more than 9 months to get 381,000 members. We beat it in less than 5 days!"

A blog on Comedy Central's website linked to a New York Times report that Facebook had been forced to temporarily take the group offline because of its high traffic. "Facebook's Servers No Match for the Weight of Stephen's Truth," the headline said.

Than Tibbetts, 23, of Grand Rapids, Minn., joined the group. He said he has a general dissatisfaction with politics and would vote for Colbert if he ran in the state. "It'd be fun to see someone lampoon the process," he said.

The fact that Colbert continues to host his show while soliciting votes could result in some sticky implications with Federal Election Committee laws. The FEC prohibits corporations from making contributions in connection with a federal election, which includes airtime. News programs are exempt, but not if a political party, political committee or candidate controls the show's content.

A report from the Rasmussen polling organization found that Colbert would get 13 percent of votes as an independent candidate against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. He got 12 percent with Fred Thompson as the GOP candidate.

NINA PETERSEN-PERLMAN

IOWA DEMOCRATS TO FOLLOW REPUBLICAN'S LEAD

As expected, Iowa's Democrats are following the lead of the state's Republicans and will hold their precinct caucuses on Jan. 3. The decision, expected to be ratified Sunday by the party's state central committee, cements Iowa's place at the front of the line of the presidential nominating process -- for now.

Even as states have been scrambling to move their presidential contests to the front of the 2008 calender, the wild card remains New Hampshire, which has traditionally shared the nominating kickoff with Iowa.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner has the power to set that state's primary and has said it would be no later than Jan. 8. He is not expected to announce a decision until November and has not ruled out holding the primary in December.

The calender is so crowded that many political analysts believe one or both of the parties' nominations could be decided by Feb. 5, when at least 20 states, including Minnesota, simultaneously hold primaries and caucuses.

BOB VON STERNBERG, AP

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