Last night John McCain intimated on Dave Letterman’s show that he and Obama should both show up and debate on Letterman.
That was before Letterman nailed him to the wall with pointing out that McCain is pals with Gordon Liddy. I haven’t seen them cut to commercial so fast since Crispin Glover nearly kicked Dave in the face.
If Obama and McCain debated on Letterman, it would be an absolute fiasco for McCain. I don’t know that Obama would necessarily fare MUCH better, but his famed unflappability would probably serve him in much better stead. Letterman would say all the stuff that wiseguys like me snark about on my blog.
I’ll grant you, McCain obliquely likening his appearance on Dave to being interrogated by the Vietcong was the best use of his time as a POW he’s ever made, and perhaps even the most appropriate. But he really, really would NOT want an extended debate appearance on Letterman. It would not go well.
PAD
PS–And major props to Keith Olberman who was willing to let himself be nothing more than a prop for Letterman’s jokes, standing in the wings, scowling, arms folded, ready to go on should McCain cancel again, like a human fire extinguisher inside glass that is supposed to be shattered in case of emergency. That gives me more respect for Olberman than any five over-the-top rants.
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John McCain is hemorrhaging voters. Of course he wants to have more townhall debates because he claims it’s his strongsuit and it’s his best chance of gaining ground. However, why would Obama ever do this? He’s winning. He doesn’t have to hit harder… he just has to not get hit. He’s waiting the clock out. If you have to pull William Ayers out, that Hillary Clinton already did and nobody cared, you have nothing left.
I wonder if Obama agreed to more debates as long as Biden and Palin got equal debates would McCain agree or would he take his ball and go home?
McCain couldn’t even be straightforward with Letterman when asked about stuff. Even stuff that wouldn’t get him in trouble.
Take, for instance, to paraphase, “How do you go about picking a VP? Is it by committee? Is it just you?”
I was genuinely curious at the answer, because it’s a peek inside a presidential campaign that we don’t normally get to see. But McCain didn’t even begin to answer the question, he just said they have a list, and they narrowed it down.
All in all, McCain can be funny at times (unlike our current, sitting idiot), but the whole hand gesture mannerisms got old in a hurry and were very distracting. Not to mention, and I know it’s no fault of his own, he looks stiff as a board.
I, too, absolutely loved seeing Keith Olbermann waiting in the wings with that expectant look on his face. He even took the big head jokes with class.
I, too, loved seeing Olbermann “waiting in the wings”, but he wasn’t scowling. He had a look of mock concern if anything else. I would have loved to have seen him go out on stage though, just to see the look on McCain’s face!
love Letterman and love how he continued to bust old man mc cain’s balls throughout the whole week and continue thru his appearance.
Peter, I disagree with you that it would be a mistake for McCain to agree to depate Obama on the Letterman show. McCain is running out of money and it might be worth the Letterman monitoring in order to get free national tv exposure.
I would have paid good money to be in the audience last night, just to see what happened between Letterman’s first Liddy comment and when they came back from commercial. If McCain somehow managed to keep his temper, he must have been tranquilized up to the eyeballs. Just goes to prove that you don’t cancel on Dave Letterman 90 minutes before you’re supposed to go on- did anybody notice that he saved the Liddy stuff until near the end? True, it was in response to the ‘palling around with terrorists’ conversation, but it was Letterman who was controlling the conversation.
And who really believes (despite McCain’s half-hearted assurances) that we’ll see Sarah Palin on Letterman during the next two weeks- or ever for that matter?
Peter, I’d be curious to read what you thought of the candidates’ comedy routines at the Al Smith dinner. While my favorite line was probably Obama’s Superman reference, I thought McCain had a better delivery (and better material) than Obama, although Obama was much more able to laugh at himself. If they were to prepare comedy material for a Letterman debate, I think McCain might come off the winner. He’s done lots of late-night comedy TV, it appears to be quite a comfortable venue for him.
Elayne, I think you’re right that a scripted, comedy debate would make McCain look good.
I think what PAD meant was a real debate with Letterman as the moderator. That would tear McCain to shreds. Dave would ask questions that Tom Brokaw would never think about. Remember, McCain’s first reaction to “Didn’t you attended a fund raiser at G. Gordon Liddy’s house?” was stunned, slack jawed silence. If they hadn’t gone to commercial, McCain wouldn’t have had time to come up with the calm answer that he eventually gave.
Dave probably wouldn’t let either of them get away with talking points and avoiding the questions. Honestly, it would probably be the debate we all really wanted to see from the start.
By the way, I love the fact that McCain’s defense of Liddy was that it was okay because Liddy was a *convicted* felon. The first speech that Palin did mentioning Ayers, she called him a convicted terrorist. They had to take that out because people pointed out that it wasn’t true. So obviously if Ayers had gone to jail they still would have spun that against him.
James Ford wrote: “However, why would Obama ever do this? He’s winning. He doesn’t have to hit harder… he just has to not get hit. He’s waiting the clock out.”
The Obama camp is showing signs that they’ve come to realize they can’t “wait the clock out” in the general election as he did in the primary. Talkingpointsmemo reported yesterday on a conference call cautioning against complacency, and with McCain majorly on the attack in North Carolina and Virginia (with mailers that have photoshopped Obama and bin Laden together) Obama is going to have to fight this one down to the wire.