McCain Tells Letterman He Screwed Up

In what has become an election-year tradition, John McCain was able to make up for a missed appointment and went out of his way to make sure he was able to keep his second scheduled appearance on the 'Late Show' with David Letterman. McCain's first scheduled appearance with Letterman was canceled by McCain three weeks ago because of the emerging financial crisis.

Letterman was not impressed with McCain's reason for canceling, noting that he was still able to keep a scheduled interview with Katie Couric at the same time. Dave kept up the heat on McCain over the last few weeks, making sure to get in a few good digs whenever possible.

During last night's appearance, Letterman focused on questioning McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Dave asked if Palin was McCain's first choice as his running mate, with the not-so-subtle implication being that she couldn't possibly have been.

Letterman then shifted gears to the McCain campaign's assertion that Barack Obama and William Ayers are "palling around" together. Dave pointed out that Obama is 21 years younger than Ayers and seemed to poke fun of the McCain campaign's assertion that the two are somehow current cronies.

And while Letterman had his fun with McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful more than held his own in a sometimes-uncomfortable situation. McCain got laughs of his own with his tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Obama and Ayers went to Denny's together. He also mentioned that he hadn't "had so much fun since my last interrogation" -- a direct reference to his time spent as a prisoner of war, one of his most marketable assets during the election.