A.) Make sure your name is not John McCain and B.) Never, ever cancel a “Late Show” appearance at the last minute.
It’s a lesson Republican presidential hopeful John McCain learned the hard way last night when he dissed David Letterman for Katie Couric.
Did you see it?
In classic Letterman style the often-irritable late-night talk show host spent much of his time on air unloading on McCain for standing him up.
Bail on Letterman? Talk about stupid human tricks.
According to Letterman, McCain personally called the comedian just hours before he was supposed to show up to tape an interview for last night’s show and told him he was halting his campaign activities so he could return to Washington, D.C. because the economy was “about to crater.”
“This doesn’t smell right,” Letterman told viewers as the show began last night. “This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody’s putting something in his Metamucil.”
Letterman further suggested that something had gone “haywire” with McCain’s campaign for him to make such a poor decision.
“When you call up… at the last minute and you cancel a show, ladies and gentleman, that starts to smell. This is not the John McCain I know,” Letterman ranted. “You say, ‘I gotta get back to Washington to save this country … and while I’m gone, campaigning in my stead will be my great running mate from the state of Alaska, Sarah Palin.’ And she comes out and campaigns. What happened there? What’s the problem? Where is she? Why isn’t she doing that?” the clearly ticked off late-night host asked.
But Letterman wasn’t done yet. Less than a minute later he continued, saying:
“You don’t suspend your campaign. That makes me think, ‘Well, maybe there will be other things down the road, if he’s in the White House, he might just suspend being president.”
Letterman then cut to the chase by wondering aloud: “Are we suspending it because there’s an economic crisis, or because the poll numbers are sliding?”
Making matter worse for McCain was the fact Letterman’s staff was able to book MSNBC’s “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann (a boisterous and constant critic of the Arizona senator) at the last minute.
And just when you didn’t think things could get any worse for the presidential candidate Letterman was able to obtain a feed of the politician getting ready to be interviewed by CBS news anchor Katie Couric at a studio just a couple miles away from Letterman’s.
This after McCain had personally told Letterman that he couldn’t appear on his show because he was immediately flying back to Washington.
“Doesn’t seem to be racing to the airport, does he?” Letterman told his live audience and millions of others watching at home. “This just gets uglier and uglier.”
As McCain spoke to Couric, Letterman shouted at the feed: “Hey, John, I’ve got a question. Do you need a ride to the airport?”
Letterman later said: “We’re told now that the senator has concluded his interview with Katie Couric and he’s now on Rachael Ray’s show making veal piccata. What are you going to do?”
This morning McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace appeared on NBC’s “Today” show trying to explain why the senator declined to go on Letterman. Wallace said that the campaign “felt this wasn’t a night for comedy.”
“We deeply regret offending Mr. Letterman, but our candidate’s priority at this moment is to focus on this crisis,” Wallace said.
What do you make of the Letterman/McCain brouhaha?