I take it that McCain cancelled an appearance with Letterman tonight, telling Letterman he was flying back to Washington to save America. But Letterman realized that as he was taping tonight’s show, McCain actually was in the CBS building being interviewed by Katie Couric. Olbermann said Letterman, um, reacts to this in the program tonight. Could be fun. I may stay up and watch.
Update: Letterman quote —
“What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”
This will be on Letterman tonight. McCain may have just screwed the pooch.
Great that Letterman picked up on this.
I think McCain’s latest move is pretty slick and desperate.
1) He attempts to look Presidential by looking as though he’s dealing with a crisis, instead of campaigning
2) From this pick of Couric over Letterman, it’s obvious that McCain can’t handle a real questioner and might just explode or look stupid in a debate. And I’m sure he must be exhausted by now – or at least he may look that way on TV – I’m sure the Republicans haven’t forgotten the lessons of the Tricky Dick/Kennedy debates in 1960.
3) I am certain they really don’t want Sarah Palin anywhere near a debate with millions of eyes focused on her. If McCain suspends, Sarah goes with him.
I tend to think a series of debates (including Palin) is McCain’s to lose. It can only benefit Obama or at best breakeven. It’s not a bad move, if outrageous on McCain’s part.
It didn’t work well for Carter when he stayed home and didn’t campaign during the hostage crisis. I know he did do the debates, but he was out of his league in that sense as well, Ronnie much better at it. It may be the old saying for Mccain/Palin, remain quiet and have people believe you the fool, open your mouth and remove all doubt. They’ll stay quiet and hope they can pull it off in November. It’s really all they’ve got.
Especially because Letterman had been offering some qualified praise for McCain for months.
Maha, not only was Letterman on fire tonight, but Craig Ferguson was as well right after him. He went on quite a righteous rant that included asking when were we going to bail out the 10 million uninsured children.
I think McCain painted himself into a corner..What’s he gonna do when Obama shows up for the debate along with 40 million viewers… but no John McCain in sight? Not a good move, McDummy!
The Letterman show was pretty good – you can see the McCain rants here :
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/24/204517/145/809/609401
By the way, I watched the Carter Reagan debates, and thought that Carter won them. That was one of my first “Pravda moments,” where the press commentary on an event I had just watched on TV seemed to have no actual relation to the event I had just watched on TV.
Pravda moments — good one. I remember the “pundit” reaction to the Kerry-Bush debates almost gave me seizures.
However, now the press is pissed off at McCain. Just one more reason he wants to avoid debates.