What "Suspended" Campaigns Do

Jesse Walker | September 26, 2008

My sympathies are entirely with David Letterman.

Comments

|9.26.08 @ 12:48PM|#

Nice clip, Dave.

I feel pretty.
Oh so pretty.
I feel witty and pretty and bright.
I feel pretty
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight.

KT|9.26.08 @ 12:49PM|#

The pretending to go to Washington but actually staying in New York was a nice touch.

Dan Rather|9.26.08 @ 12:50PM|#

Hey, someone at CBS had to take up my mantle of strong, nonpartisan, responsible television.

Courage, Dave.

Of Course|9.26.08 @ 12:52PM|#

When Obama does the exact same thing, Letterman won't use it.

|9.26.08 @ 12:53PM|#

Is there really anything more pathetic than John McCain supporters - John McMaverick, for Chrissakes, the "Straight Talk Express" guy who had the DC press corp to one of his houses for a cookout, the guy who calls the media "my base" - whining about the biased media picking on him?

miche|9.26.08 @ 12:55PM|#

This is hilarious. Liars all of them and good for Letterman for calling him out on it.

|9.26.08 @ 12:57PM|#

He's a MAVRICK! It's what he does!

So....|9.26.08 @ 12:58PM|#

So McCain cancelled Letterman, a humor show, due to the serious nature of the economic problems, but still did a straight news show. Letterman has a hissy fit and steals Couric's feed to try to make McCain look bad.

You stay classy, CBS.

It\'s Not Like The Media Are B|9.26.08 @ 1:00PM|#

http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/pdf/BiasBasics.pdf

Just a myth folks, nothing to see here, move along...

|9.26.08 @ 1:02PM|#

So McCain cancelled Letterman, a humor show, due to the serious nature of the economic problems,

then lied about it to him, personally, saying he was going to Washington and couldn't do the show

...but still did a straight news show. Letterman has a hissy fit and steals Couric's feed to try to make McCain look bad.

There, fixed that for you.

|9.26.08 @ 1:03PM|#

Ah, yes, that biased Letterman. Real hostile territory, out to get McCain.

That must be why McCain has appeared on Letterman a bunch of times, and chose his show to announce his candidacy.

Christ on a Cracker|9.26.08 @ 1:04PM|#

McCain has suspended all his campaign political commercial while he is in congress debating the bailout legislation.

Some needs to let him know know he no longer needs to be live at the TV studio. I think this new-fangled stuff is called videotape. He can ask his grand kids to use their interwebby thingy to look it up.

Jesse Walker|9.26.08 @ 1:10PM|#

I'll just add this to Joe's comments: McCain's apparently dishonesty towards Letterman is itself a legitimate story, and Letterman's the man who broke it. The news department, meanwhile, was either a party to McCain's deception or, more likely, missed the story right under their noses.

As I said, my sympathies are entirely with Letterman.

|9.26.08 @ 1:10PM|#

Of course, it's unthinkable that the media would run footage of a Democratic presidential candidate getting his makeup done.

Totally, unthinkable. Never happen. They're just too in the take for the Democrats, so you're never going to see that.

I feel pretty
Oh so pretty
I feel pretty and witty and bright.
I feel pretty
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight.

Never happen. Nope. Absolutely not.

|9.26.08 @ 1:12PM|#

Let's pretend one is an Obama spindoctor and McCain goes on Letterman: "Here's McCain yucking it up on a comedy show while the poor and middle class are suffering a financial clamity. Shows he is out of touch, etc. etc."
In politics you are damned if you do and damned if you don't because each side has spin doctors to put best/worst light on it.

|9.26.08 @ 1:18PM|#

In politics you are damned if you do and damned if you don't

Lying to David "I was supposed to replace Carson" Letterman is extra-crispy-fried-stupid. I mean, just bonecrushingly stupid. Spin doctors have nothing to do with it.

Tom G|9.26.08 @ 1:19PM|#

I love the McCain defenders - "Letterman's only a humor show".
Look guys, McCain has been on Letterman numerous times, Dave isn't (or wasn't) completely hostile to him. Dave is legitimately p.o.'ed because John did NOT HAVE TO LIE. But he did, and got caught.
If John had admitted he still had to do Couric, but begged out and hadn't claimed he was flying right to Washington when he didn't, I doubt Dave would have been so harsh.
(oops, got caught at that Clinton Global Initiative too)
I think Dave's anger is justified.

Mike Laursen|9.26.08 @ 1:22PM|#

Nah. Letterman has been known to do fairly straight interviews before, and no doubt would go into straight interview mode if McCain wanted to spin his appearance as going onto a popular show to inform the public about a serious crisis.

|9.26.08 @ 1:26PM|#

So..., and Creech, you aren't getting it.

It may well be that skipping Letterman and going on Couric was the right thing to do.

The point here is that he lied directly to Letterman about it.

The idea that Letterman is biased against McCain is laughable. McCain's been on Letterman's show numerous times. This is personal--Letterman is legendarily sensitive to perceived slights, and he no doubt wanted to punish McCain for the lie.

|9.26.08 @ 1:56PM|#

So which says more about you. That you would "spin" and distort for political gain, or that you would lie to the face of someone who treated you with dignity. Just sayin .....

|9.26.08 @ 1:59PM|#

Top Ten Reasons I'm skipping my appearance on Letterman:

10. Nancy Pelosi is having a pajama party.
9. Green room snacks are stale.
8. Katie Couric smells better than Dave.
7. Paul Schaffer messes with my Maverick theme song
6. Don't want to go up against Sen. Rob Lowe on Kimmel.
5. I GOT TICKETS TO THE JONAS BROTHERS! WHOO HOO!
4. It's not a meat giveaway night
3. Gotta go save what's left of the free world
2. I had to stop at WaMu on the way. There was a line.

And the number 1 reason is:

Lipstick!

|9.26.08 @ 2:12PM|#

I'm glad Senator McCain did not do Mr. Letterman's show, that way I don't have to watch his show. David Letterman is creepy, and not funny or informative.

|9.26.08 @ 2:46PM|#

since when did not supporting "dumb old lying fuck" become the same as supporting Obama?
jesus people.

Ken Hagler|9.26.08 @ 4:34PM|#

Jesse, the "new" division's behavior is even worse. See this part from the linked article:

Asked if CBS officials had a problem with Letterman using the internal news feed, a spokeswoman for "The Evening News" refused to address the issue.

But several CBS News executives - who asked not to be identified - said that the stunt did not go down well within the news division.

"If we had done something like that to him, someone around here would end up getting fired," one said.

And those mainstream media types actually act surprised that they have so little credibility...

Happy Jack|9.26.08 @ 5:02PM|#

I haven't watched Letterman in a long time, but his line "Do you need a ride to the airport?" was pretty damn funny.