Conan O’Brien Tries to Rescue a Longshot 2016 Dem

You—yes, you, right there—are polling as well as Lincoln Chafee.

Last month, a Monmouth University poll showed that the former Rhode Island governor and Democratic presidential candidate had “registered no support”—as in he literally did not receive a single vote in the Democratic primary survey of 1,001 adults.

On Wednesday night’s episode of TBS’s Conan, comedian and host Conan O’Brien announced that he was looking to change that.

“Let’s be honest, I’m not trying to get him elected,” O’Brien said. “In fact, I’m personally not going to vote for him. Okay? But I think we should at least get him on the board so he’s not humiliated. It seems like the nice thing to do.”

He then invited on Aimee Mann and​ Ted Leo to perform an original, unsolicited campaign song for Chafee 2016. The lyrics are as follows:

Used to be Republican / Switched to Dem in 2010 / The pride of Rhode Island / His horse’s hooves were stylin’ Wants the metric system for the U.S. / A plan with zero gram’s chance of success He’s Lincoln Chafee / For President You don’t have to vote for him / Just get him to 1 percent / He’s only got 12 Facebook friends / He looks like Chris Matthews on a juice cleanse He’s Lincoln Chafee / Let’s get him 1 percent / He’ll never be President / Just get him 1 percent.

It’s sorta catchy.

“Please, let’s all do our part to take Lincoln Chafee all the way to number 1 percent, we can do this, America!” O’Brien implored.

The Chafee campaign responded with a tongue-in-cheek statement. “I want to thank Conan for the attention,” the longshot presidential hopeful said. “He’s a good sport and I would definitely come on the show to help his ratings.”

Chafee spokeswoman Debbie Rich reiterated that the former governor indeed “welcomes the opportunity to appear on the show,” but that the campaign hasn’t “heard from [Conan] yet, so hopefully that will happen.”

When asked by The Daily Beast whether there had been any recent discussion about having the Democratic candidate appear on the show, Conan spokesman Drew Shane simply emailed, “We haven’t finalized our bookings for next week.”

Although the late-night host is not supporting Chafee’s bid for the presidency, their politics aren’t all that dissimilar. O’Brien is a liberal who has donated to Democrats such as Chris Dodd and Al Franken. O’Brien and Franken are former Saturday Night Live colleagues, and O’Brien hosted a fundraiser for Senator Franken’s 2014 reelection campaign.

Now here’s a Daily Beast compilation of some of O’Brien’s best political jokes: