Stephen Colbert Leads Jon Huntsman In South Carolina Poll

UPDATE: During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Huntsman responded to the poll results.

“Well when I was on his show recently he promised me the Colbert bump," Huntsman said. "I think we are getting that here in New Hampshire, now I am going to be looking for the Colbert bump in South Carolina."

Huntsman appeared on "The Colbert Report" in October.

PREVIOUSLY: A new PPP poll shows Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert edging out Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman in South Carolina's upcoming GOP primary, despite the fact that the comedian is not actually on the ballot.

The new poll, released on Tuesday, shows five percent of primary voters in the Palmetto State picking Colbert, while four percent choose Huntsman. Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer also trailed Colbert with just one percent of primary voters supporting him.

"Even if Huntsman finishes second in New Hampshire tonight it doesn't speak well for his prospects down the line that he's running behind Stephen Colbert," Tom Jensen of PPP wrote on the polling organization's blog.

As The Atlantic Wire points out, it is unclear whether voters intended to vote for Colbert's conservative TV persona or the real Stephen Colbert.

The 'Colbert Report' star finished sixth overall in the poll. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 27 percent, followed by Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 23 percent, Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum with 18 percent, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) with eight percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry with 7 percent.

South Carolina has an open primary, where Democrats are allowed to vote in the Republican nominating contest.

"Colbert's key, had he been allowed on the ballot, would have been to draw out Democratic voters in the state's open primary," Jensen wrote.

He continued, "My guess is if he'd really put some effort into it he could have won 10-15% of the vote and nabbed himself a fourth place finish there."

PPP was inspired to include Colbert in the poll after the television personality, a South Carolina native, attempted to buy the primary's naming rights in December with funds from his political action committee, Colbert Super PAC. Colbert also attempted to get on the state's Democratic primary ballot in 2008, but party officials voted him down.

Video produced by Hunter Stuart

Comments

[Wayne Stuart]

11:38 PM on 01/16/2012

Colbert - yes finally the anti - Romney candidate that can stop Romney. Huntsman is no fool he saw writing on wall first. Look for Ron Paul first and Colbert second. Laugh all you want just remember you heard it here first. Ron Paul killed the others tonight, Even Fox had to show the twitter results. Romney was dead last. Corporations are not people as such do not vote. Thus the corporate Romney stands no chance regardless what the corporate media wants to tell you. He lost Iowa which will come out soon and South Carolina will end it for him.

[Omentum]

12:12 PM on 01/12/2012

Huntsmann... maybe you will have a chance once the GOP move from batsh1t crazy right back to far right.

[oski the bear]

12:56 PM on 01/11/2012

Not only is this a great step for Colbert's dream of building a better tomorrow, tomorrow, but it's also an official determination that he has at long last beaten Jon! Contrarians will say he's beating the wrong Jon, leaving his longtime frenemy, Jon Stewart, still untouched. But I say that's a minor detail that merits nothing more than a footnote to the big story!

[iver]

09:44 AM on 01/11/2012

To be fair, and I like Colbert, a dead horse would out poll this GOP field of 'candidates'.

[sarasu]

08:40 AM on 01/11/2012

I have Republican friends who think Stephen is the second comming of "Pappa Bear", Bill O'Reilley.
I've tried to explain he's just jerking them off,but to no avail.
They really believe he's a Repub pundit.
The hundred bucks I sent to his super pac,was the BEST MONEY I EVER SPENT.

[iver]

09:44 AM on 01/11/2012

This what happens to the irony impaired.

[InsideBrooklyn]

08:33 AM on 01/11/2012

Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen

[ThomastonPaine]

08:22 AM on 01/11/2012

Mr. Colbert,

Ordinarily I am a big fan -- but this week's sketch on the "Magna Carta" was not satire… it was the worst form of propaganda and actually served to provide cover for President Obama’s unconscionable action in signing the (NDAA) and stripping American’s of their Due Process rights.

You and Jon Stewart have spoken of the tremendous responsibility that you both have in understanding that your shows are the only source of news for many in your audience. This is an incredibly powerful position…your audience trusts you and at any point you can educate, advocate, shape, shade, color and manipulate all under cover of comedy. You and Mr. Stewart are truly masters of this…

Why then would you ever fill in the empty spaces with an attack on the very document that is the inspiration for our Bill of Rights – most specifically our right to Due Process…less than two weeks after Americans have lost this very right? If you denigrate America’s connection to the document and denigrate old documents in general you make it far easier to strip us of the rights they inspire or provide. You normally use satire to make salient points…this time you may have irresponsibly influenced many of the historically ignorant in your audience to ultimately disregard one of the most important documents in human history.

You are far better than just another “Court Jester” for ”King Obama”

[Skyler McLane]

08:34 AM on 01/11/2012

Obama didn't make the bill, just sign it. He shouldn't have, I will give you that. But the bill flew through the house with overwhelming support. This isn't just one person or one party against the people, it is the entire government, GOTP/Dem against it's people.

[ThomastonPaine]

08:51 AM on 01/11/2012

Unfortunately,
The very language that strips us of our Due Process Rights was insisted upon by President Obama and the White House...not Congress.

“Obama Insists on Indefinite Detention of Americans”
http://rt.­com/usa/ne­ws/obama-d­etention-d­efense-lev­in-635/

[ThomastonPaine]

08:37 AM on 01/11/2012

*On the American Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta from the National Archives:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/

“When representatives of the young republic of the United States gathered to draft a constitution, they turned to the legal system they knew and admired--English common law as evolved from Magna Carta. The conceptual debt to the great charter is particularly obvious: the American Constitution is "the Supreme Law of the Land," just as the rights granted by Magna Carta were not to be arbitrarily canceled by subsequent English laws.

This heritage is most clearly apparent in our Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment guarantees:
No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

Written 575 years earlier, Magna Carta declares:

No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other way destroyed...except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice.”

“Obama Insists on Indefinite Detention of Americans”
http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-detention-defense-levin-635/

[Eddie Martinez]

07:32 AM on 01/11/2012

Huntsman or Colbert – Who would I vote for on the GOP primary? – Tough decision! I guess it would wind up voting for Colbert w/ Huntsman as his VP. An independent thinker

[grump]

05:24 AM on 01/11/2012

I would vote for him.

[ok3apples]

04:52 AM on 01/11/2012

Stephen Colbert is about as viable as John Huntsman is to be voted into office. I'm all for it. I only wish it wasn't just show biz.

[DocWylie]

03:22 AM on 01/11/2012

I pray for a "Harding convention" where the divisions are so great a dark horse candidate (Colbert) snatches victory from the jaws of comedy.

[RagMag]

01:37 AM on 01/11/2012

Colbert is obviously positioning himself for the VP slot.

[truth007]

01:32 AM on 01/11/2012

Romney has simply lied a number of times while trying to reinvent himself. For example:

-- "I have a gun of my own."
(Not true. He was talking about a gun one of his grown sons own.)

-- "I've been a hunter pretty much my entire life."
(He hunted once at 15, and a second time in his late 50s.)

-- "I told you what my position was, and what I, what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA."
(No - and his Democratic opponent actually had a higher NRA rating)

-- "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."
(No, they never marched together. They were both in Michigan at the same time once, but Mitt was in France on his mission.)

-- "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."
(even more false...)

This last lie was the funnest because of all the waffling that Romney did trying to explain it. After a Boston newspaper showed that they couldn't have marched together, Mitt's spokesman said that "George W. Romney and Martin Luther King Jr. marched together in June, 1963 -- although possibly not on the same day or in the same city." And Mitt then explained "I've tried to be as accurate as I can be. If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of ? in the sense I've described.

[Nunnenj]

12:30 AM on 01/11/2012

Good to see a story about the Republican primaries that brought a smile to my face.

Even though Stephen Colbert is too smart to be a Republican.

[alwill]

12:04 AM on 01/11/2012

So--We have a comedian in the White House now.