Just watch. And always remember: never cross David Letterman.
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The Edge of the American West 
19 comments
September 24, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Ahistoricality
Letterman’s right: they should let Palin and Biden stand in for McCain and Obama at the debate on Friday. Then Obama and McCain can take the date next Thursday.
How do I contact the campaigns with my idea?
September 24, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Erik
Jesus. That was brutal.
September 24, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Nate
Is it me, or is this thing over now?
September 24, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Jeremy Young
I second Ahistoricality’s motion.
WTF is McCain thinking? Shaking up the race once (with the Palin pick) was crazy, but brilliant. Shaking it up over and over again? Just crazy.
September 24, 2008 at 9:27 pm
ben
Letterman would be right were there actually compelling reason for Obama and McCain not to proceed with the debate on Friday themselves. As far as I can tell, there isn’t.
September 24, 2008 at 9:37 pm
bitchphd
Well, no, it’s insane. But even if you grant McCain’s crazy grandpa premise, there’s no reason for, say, the vp debate to happen earlier, and I love Letterman (who I actually usually think is kind of an asshole) for hammering that point home.
September 24, 2008 at 9:59 pm
eric
I’ve always liked Letterman.
September 24, 2008 at 10:01 pm
ari
He’s at his very best when he’s crabby. Outrage fuels his humor.
September 24, 2008 at 10:02 pm
eric
Sorry, I meant to say, I’ve always liked him because he’s not-very-nice, as B says.
September 24, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Rich Puchalsky
Treating this more seriously than it deserves, it’s standard Republican MO to break every “unwritten rule” there is — and written ones too, of course. This is pure Bushism. The whole “have a convention”, “get a respectable vice President”, “have debates” thing isn’t enforced, so if you don’t see any immediate advantage, don’t do it.
September 24, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Jeremy Young
Here’s Letterman mocking an obviously drug-addled Crispin Glover.
I agree with bitchphd: Letterman’s usually an asshole, but his assholery is used here for an excellent purpose.
September 25, 2008 at 3:58 am
ac
Benjamin DeMott had some analysis of Letterman as generally classist and directing most of his mockery at the poor. Perhaps in a but for the grace of god sort of way. But I don’t remember the details.
September 25, 2008 at 4:00 am
ac
He’s definitely pointing the mockery up this time, though.
September 25, 2008 at 5:07 am
kid bitzer
if mocking the obviously drug-addled is wrong, i don’t wanna be right.
no seriously, crispin glover is one of the editors’ favorite objets’ d’esprit, and the editors can do no wrong.
also: mccain now goes down as the most pathetically lame-assed candidate of my life. and i’ve seen some doozies.
September 25, 2008 at 8:08 am
Ira
This was just so needlessly dumb on McCain’s part. He clearly didn’t want to be seen yukking it up with Dave just an hour or two after the president’s State of Financial Emergency speech. He could have just told Letterman that he didn’t think it would be appropriate right now. The same as Obama did a few weeks ago with Saturday Night Live. But to make up this song and dance about having to get on a plane right away… Not even having an aide make the call, but to get Dave on the phone himself and then lie to him…. And then go do another show on the SAME NETWORK?….. Just. So. Dumb.
September 25, 2008 at 8:25 am
Zach
Ari’s Conspiracy goes on, you think we wouldn’t notice that the video “just happened” to be 9 minutes and 11 seconds? 9-11? Huh?
Nice work “Mr. Giuliani”
September 25, 2008 at 8:29 am
SEK
Ira touches on the central point here — it’s not that McCain canceled and lied, it’s that he canceled, lied, then went on the only evening news show whose live-feed Dave had access to. The lunatic incompetence is breathtaking to behold.
September 25, 2008 at 8:58 am
silbey
Shaking it up over and over again? Just crazy
“Disrupt the narrative” seems to be their operational strategy. There was a bad story developing for McCain over the last few days about his houses and cars and lack of command of economic issues.
This potentially breaks that narrative, and has other benefits:
1. VP debate potentially cancelled
2. Foreign policy debate (which actually could only help Obama) gets sidelined.
It’s a gamble, but if you’re short-stacked, you have to go all in to have any chance (/WSOP analogy).
it’s that he canceled, lied, then went on the only evening news show whose live-feed Dave had access to.
Yeah, that was dumb.
September 26, 2008 at 9:33 am
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