Colbert Ends White House Bid: A Nation Tries to Heal http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=21706 Colbert Shut Down http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/article/2007/11/05/colbert-shut-down/ Campaign 2008: The Presidential Field http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/ Summary of Findings: Modest Interest in 2008 Campaign News [pdf] http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=364 Internet Archive: Best of Washington Humor http://www.archive.org/details/Best_of_Washington_Humor Many presidential campaigns have met an untimely end, and the past few decades have certainly seen more than a few whose initial successes were derailed by a myriad of reasons. This past week saw the conclusion of talking head and noted comedic wag Stephen Colbert's very brief campaign to become president as the South Democratic Executive Council voted 13-3 to effectively keep him off the state's primary ballot. In a statement offered by Colbert on Monday, he noted, "Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history-only 10 votes-I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle." Colbert's short campaign junket included a memorable exchange with fellow news personality Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" and a fiery speech in Charleston in which he opined, "I love South Carolina almost as much as South Carolina loves me!" Normally Colbert would be able to immediately return to his popular nightly news parody program, but due to the writer's strike, that is not an option for the former candidate. The first link will take visitors to the New York Times' lively political blog "The Caucus". Here they can read a brief story (complete with some nice external links) about the conclusion of the Colbert campaign from Monday. Moving on, the next link will take interested parties to a like-minded blog entry from the San Francisco Chronicle. The third link leads to a thoughtful opinion piece from Brian Ahern, the news editor of the UNLV student newspaper, "The Rebel Yell". In the piece Ahern comments that the major difference between Stephen Colbert and the other candidates is that he "is willing to admit that his public persona is simply a character." The fourth link leads to a very helpful site from The Washington Post which offers detailed profiles of all the 2008 presidential candidates. The fifth link leads to a report from The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press which offers some perspective on the current level of interest among members of the American public about the 2008 campaign. The sixth link will whisk users to the complete version of an album from the early 1960s titled "Best of Washington Humor". Here, visitors can listen to legendary news anchor Chet Huntley introduce clips from Sargent Shriver, President John F. Kennedy, and Adlai Stevenson.