Unlike politicians, who parlay books they’ve “written” into runs for office, Stephen Colbert is using his well-hyped run for the Presidency (placing himself on the ballot, in both Republican and Democratic races, in his home state of South Carolina) to sell his book.

And it’s working: “I Am America (And So Can You!)” is currently at No. 4 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Only three books that could be construed as “political” are in the Top 50, underscoring how sick of it all people are these days.

Also underscoring how sick people are of politics as usual these days are the political pundits who are actually bothering to pay Colbert some heed.

Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza cites a poll that finds Colbert a mere 37.7% behind frontrunner Hillary Clinton, and, with 2.3% support, actually ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent) in the Democratic race. He fares far less well in the Republican race, with less than one percent of registered Republicans supporting his bid (placing him behind even the fringiest of fringe candidates, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo), but it’s hard to imagine many Republicans pleased to see their political philosophies mocked as ruthlessly as Colbert manages on a weeknightly basis.

And then there’s Joshua Green of The Atlantic, the new poster boy for Guy With Too Much Time On His Hands. Green almost obsessively crunches numbers – heck, forget that “almost” – to tell you precisely what I could’ve told you without going to the bother of even glancing in the general direction of a calculator: Colbert doesn’t stand a chance.

But then, Green reverses himself and says: Not so fast.

“Here things get a little more interesting. I can’t point to anything other than truthiness, but I believe the ‘drunken college student’ demographic is being overlooked. Anecdotal evidence lends support. ‘I’m surprised how many students seem to get their news from Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert,’ Blease admitted. ‘In the grand tradition of student mischief, you could see Colbert having a pied-piper effect.’ Indeed, state law doesn’t require voters to register until 30 days before the primary, so there’s plenty of time for a Colbert wave to sweep South Carolina. And because South Carolina doesn’t have party registration, the independents—who, according to Scarborough Research, are Comedy Central’s largest voter demographic, narrowly beating out Democrats—can vote in either primary.

Green even posits credible-sounding strategies aimed at landing Colbert at least one delegate from the state’s representative voting pool, thereby allowing him to attend both the Republican and Democratic primaries. (Did I say Green has too much time on his hands? Let me restate that: Apparently bereft of a job, friends, family, hobbies or a TV to distract him, Green has nothing but time on his hands and a profound inability to prioritize how said time might best be spent.) To wit:

“In the Republican primary, Colbert should focus on the First District, which stretches along the coast from Colbert’s hometown of Charleston up to Myrtle Beach. Besides being most likely to respond to the ‘native son’ gambit, the heavily conservative district’s voters tend to be upscale economic conservatives rather than social conservatives (Colbert’s appeal is stronger with the first group). The district also encompasses plenty of colleges and universities, including the Citadel, where Colbert’s ‘patriotism’ might yield votes, provided no one spots the scare quotes. The district also has a pronounced weakness for political gimmicks. Its congressman, Republican Henry Brown, got elected in 2000 after distributing 20,000 ‘Oh Henry!’ candy bars to boost name recognition.

“In the Democratic primary, Colbert’s best bet is the Second District, which encompasses most of the capital city of Columbia, and, more important, has the highest concentration of college students. Though it’s less Democratic than the Sixth District, it has a far higher proportion of white voters, which, in a Democratic primary, is exactly who Colbert needs to target. Even better, Columbia is its own media market. Colbert probably won’t have Obama-like fundraising prowess. But an Internet campaign ought to be able to raise enough cash to run a few well-targeted ads (here again the drunken-college-student demographic could prove valuable).”

Here’s a risk-vs-rewards question: Do you think the Democrats should invite Colbert to speak at their convention next year? That lands them all the hip credibility needed to lock up the under-30 vote; on the other hand, there’s the ever-present danger that Colbert could bite the hand that feeds him, much as he did last year at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

At any rate, it would make for some riveting TV, and might just cajole a few people into watching the convention, if just for 20 minutes. Start sending your cards and letters requesting air time for Colbert to Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Rahm Emmanuel, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, now!