Colbert is taking full credit for Huntsman dropping out of the race. | AP Photos Colbert: I scared Huntsman off

Stephen Colbert is taking full credit for Jon Huntsman dropping out of the 2012 race, declaring on “The Colbert Report” that his announcement last week to form an exploratory committee for president has “completely changed the complexion of this race.”

“It has gone from linen to eggshell. And today, it just got a little off-whiter,” Colbert told his excited audience on Monday night, showing off a clip of Huntsman’s speech from earlier in the day announcing he was quitting.


“Folks, do you see what’s happened here? The mere possibility that I might run for president blew Jon Huntsman all the way back to the Lands’ End catalog he came from!” said Colbert. “Again, that’s just from me exploring the idea of running. Can you imagine what it would do to the field if I, Stephen T. Colbert, looked into the camera right now and officially announced?”

But the comedian quickly quieted his cheering fans, saying, “But I’m not.”

He added, “By the way, that snapping sound you heard just now is the sphincters of the other candidates snapping shut. You have to listen closely for Romney’s because it starts out about 90 percent clenched.”

The Colbert-Huntsman drama began last week when a new Public Policy Polling survey found the late-night comic edging out the former Utah governor in the South Carolina Republican primary, 5 to 4 percent.

This quickly led to Colbert announcing on his show that he was forming an exploratory committee for a possible candidacy for “president of the United States of America of South Carolina,” and a handing over of the control of his super PAC to his “Comedy Central” colleague Jon Stewart.

Since the announcement, Colbert’s super PAC has already begun airing an anti-Mitt Romney ad, and on Monday night released another commercial urging Americans to “vote Herman Cain.”

And could Rick Santorum be Colbert’s next target?

The comic, noting how Santorum had recently garnered the backing of social conservative leaders, quipped on this show Monday, “Personally, I would not have gone with Santorum. If I were God, I would have gone with me.”

“Why not, folks?” he said. “I’m a social conservative, I teach Sunday school, I attend church, and most importantly, I’m a way bigger homophobe than Rick Santorum.”