Colbert Watch, Day 4

It seems like my persistence in trying to get comedy news pundit Stephen Colbert to weigh-in on the Carbondale mayoral race paid off -- although not how I expected.

On Wednesday night's show, Stephen gave a lukewarm endorsement to Mayor Brad Cole's opponent. Did you see it? The context was a subtextual message about the Simon on American Idol, but the message was clear and uncannily true: Simon would be nicer.

But despite this seeming setback, Cole has been cleaning-up in local newspaper support -- with yesterday's Southern Illinoisan endorsement and Chris Wissmann's surprising Nightlife editorial exposing his Council colleague's false claims about our Mayor. And a few weeks ago, The Murpysboro American endorsed Cole as well. I guess the DE is sticking with Sheila, since Pepper Holder is out of the running.

But now we can add Stephen Colbert's dubious endorsement to the Simon's column. That she'll, uh, be "nicer." But is that sufficient reason to make her Mayor? Not according to another pundit, Great Marmaduke's Ghost, who wrote weeks ago:

"People say Sheila Simon is 'nicer' than Brad Cole. So what? It is not the business of government to make people feel good about themselves. It is the job of city government to foster economic development, provide for the public safety, build and maintain infrastructure and to pick up garbage. Every thing else is secondary -- and Cole tops Simon on all of these basics."

Stephen's Thursday show contained no comment or support for his friend Brad, today.

Hey Colbert! I spoke to Cole yesterday about issuing a Mayoral proclamation making Sheila Simon's birthday (whenever it is) "Stephen Colbert Day" but he just laughed. Maybe if you gave your friend Brad a little encouragement? A shout-out from on high, where the Eagle flies. (You have until Monday to rectify this situation. You're on notice.)