…and outperforming Renaldo Balkman in national polls as well! Well, I’m guessing on those. But here’s a little bit of strange meta-political nonsense to start your day off right. The political polling group Rasmussen Reports, uh, reports that:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Colbert is preferred by 13% of voters as an independent candidate challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. The survey was conducted shortly after Colbert™s surprise announcement that he is lusting for the Oval Office.

The result is similar when Fred Thompson is the Republican in the three-way race. With Thompson as the GOP candidate, Colbert earns 12% of the vote.

..Colbert does particularly well with the younger voters most likely to be watching his show and therefore most aware of his myriad presidential-like qualities. In the match-up with Giuliani and Clinton, Colbert draws 28% of likely voters aged 18-29. He draws 31% of that cohort when his foes are Thompson and Clinton. In both match-ups, Colbert has more support with young voters than the GOP candidate.

The fact that the emphasis was in the original probably means this is bad news for the Republican nominees? “Presidential-like qualities” is a very funny formulation to me, too. Anyway, even though their candidates are, when it comes to the young folks, currently running behind a guy who waves a giant flag in front of the word “Gutly” during the opening credits of his program, things could still be worse for the GOP — although that will change when polling numbers become available for Colbert versus former Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann.