Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain appeared together Friday at the College of Charleston for the “Rock Me Like a Herman Cain South Cain-olina Primary” rally.
The Huffington Post reported that the crowd of 3,000-5,000 people in South Carolina was the largest campaign rally so far during this GOP presidential primary season.
Bearing a striking resemblance to an authentic political rally, the event boasted a marching band, cheerleaders, gospel choir and large “Vote Cain” banner.
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Of course, Stephen Colbert certainly didn’t sound like your average presidential candidate. He took to the stage, first welcoming Cain as “the man, we’re all gathered here to see introduce me” and then went on to endorse Cain… sort of.
“I want you to vote for Herman Cain, because Herman Cain is me,” Colbert told the cheering crowd. “We both flout convention when it comes to things like taxes and debt and how many Ubekis there are in Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan.”
Cain’s subsequent speech paled in comparison to Colbert’s rousing words. The GOP dropout echoed his campaign message, saying he was endorsing “the people” and not any particular candidate. “Stephen Colbert asked you to vote for Herman Cain. I’m going to ask you to not vote for Herman Cain and here’s why. I don’t want you to waste your vote. Every vote counts and yours still matters and you still matter. That’s my message.”
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Following Cain’s speech, Colbert returned to the podium and slammed the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that allows unlimited corporate contributions to super PACs.
“If corporations are people … I’m proud to say I’m a people person,” Colbert said, as he proclaimed himself the “Lockheed Martin Luther Burger King” hero of the corporations-are-people civil rights movement. He also ironically reinforced his point by citing Abraham Lincoln as an example in Civil War-friendly South Carolina. “As Lincoln said at Gettysburg: ‘give me some money… They don’t teach that at school anymore. They’ve replaced that with gay Mexican history month.”
Colbert has been flirting with a real presidential run for the past week. He appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to say he was exploring the possiblility of entering the race. In addition, he turned over control of his super PAC, “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” to Jon Stewart, which then ran ads calling Romney a serial job killer.
Watch video of Colbert’s appearance here:
