Super Colbert's Super PAC

So the question is "Does Stephen Colbert's super PAC stunt really help with awareness of the billions that will be spent on Campaign 2012?"  I'd like it to be true that it is, and he took his show to ABC's This Week with Snuffles to do it.

Colbert is using his faux bid for the White House to draw attention to new campaign finance laws that allow unnamed donors to pour unlimited funds into super PACs, which can spend that money to support political candidates as long as they do not directly coordinate with a candidate.

"Why would you worry about what money is doing to the political process?" Colbert said, a twinge of sarcasm in his voice. "There are $11.2 million worth of ads being run in South Carolina. That just means more speech than ever before in South Carolina."

Colbert's super PAC, which was re-named The Definitely Not Coordinated With Stephen Colbert Super PAC after Colbert announced his exploratory committee, launched an ad in South Carolina this week labeling Mitt Romney a "serial killer."

The Colbert super PAC ad is an obvious spoof of anti-Romney ads being run by the pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC in the Palmetto State. Gingrich has said any untrue statements should be removed from the ad, but, because the PAC does not coordinate with Gingrich, it has refused to re-edit the ads, which some say stretch the truth about Romney's time at Bain Capital.

Colbert took a similar tone, saying he had "nothing to do" with the "serial killer" ads.

"I am not calling anyone a serial killer," Colbert said. "That's not my super PAC."

Colbert handed the reins of his PAC over to fellow comedian Jon Stewart earlier this week. 

Now, it's great that Colbert and Stewart are definitely bringing attention to all this money going towards campaign silliness.  And yes, the absolute absurdity of the situation is a very visible, indelible reminder of how broken Citizens United has made our system.

But in the short run, you can argue that Colbert is turning off younger voters that watch his show, and making them decide to wash their hands of the entire political process.  Long-term, the only way this gets fixed is through new legislation, and that's not going to happen if voters just decide to walk away from the ballot box because there's no point in trying to change the system.

On the other hand, there's a strong argument to be made here that Colbert is targeting Romney and the GOP directly as well as Citizens United, and that his audience is smart enough to catch on to the fact that their vote is important enough to spend a couple hundred bucks per voter in America in order to try to buy it through ads and campaign events.  Besides, the "Mitt The Ripper" ad is utterly brilliant satire.

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I'm definitely learning toward the latter here.  Colbert's doing the country a favor.