Note to McCain: Don't Diss Letterman!

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Note to political candidates: don’t insult a television host just before he’s got an hour on television to grouse about it.

David Letterman appeared pretty peeved when John McCain cancelled an appearance on his television show less than an hour before taping, saying "this smells."

Letterman told his TV audience that McCain had personally called him to cancel the appearance, saying that he needed to rush back to Washington to help sort out the financial crisis by meeting with Congress.

And at first, the disgruntled host handled it fairly well…for him. He lobbed several jabs McCain’s way, including the daily Top Ten list, which was "Top Ten things People are Asking the McCain Campaign." Included on the list were #10; "Can’t you solve this by selling some of your homes?" and #6; "Do you still think the fundamentals of the economy are strong, genius?" And #3; "Hillary here, my schedule is free Friday night."

Letterman continued complaining, though he did compliment McCain on his Vietnam war record, which garnered a round of audience applause. Then he said, "But this is not the way a tested hero behaves, when you call up at the last minute and cancel, that’s not the John McCain I know," adding, "Somebody must be putting something in his Metamucil."

Ha ha. But then things got really interesting. While interviewing his replacement guest, uber-left MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, Letterman discovered that McCain was in fact at that very moment being interviewed with Katie Couric about three blocks away. The Today Show is also broadcast on CBS, and Letterman was able to obtain a live feed to where McCain was sitting in the chair, having his face powdered before the Couric interview.

Ouch.

After commenting that McCain was not, as he had told Letterman, "racing back to Washington" to solve the economic crisis and watching the feed for a few moments, the host shouted, "Hey John! I’ve got a question for you…do you need a lift to the airport?"

Of course a comedian needs to make the most out of moments like this. And the live news feed calling McCain on his obvious little white lie was a priceless example – a comedic gift from the heavens. And David Letterman is just one guy, who was probably going to vote for Obama anyway.

Still, it doesn’t make McCain look very good, does it? Out of the three million or so Letterman viewers (and something tells me the Youtube leak before the show will help his numbers on this particular evening), how many are those all-powerful undecided independents?

So, even though Dave’s statement that "The road to the White House goes directly through me" might not be entirely accurate, it’s still a good idea to not blatantly lie to the irascible host, who would be happy to show footage of anyone making a fool of himself (or herself).

As for McCain’s claims of suspending his campaign to focus on the economy, Letterman quipped, "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!"