John McCain to Appear on "Late Show with David Letterman" to Make Amends

It looks as if Senator John McCain has finally become tired of being the brunt of David Letterman's monologue, snide asides, and "Top 10" lists. The Senator will be appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Thursday, October 16. It will be his 13^th appearance on the talk show.

In what is being referred to by some as a 'showdown' (Associated Press title), the upcoming late night session could very well turn out to not be one of Senator McCain's more shining moments. Letterman, known for dry and incisive wit, could very well embarrass McCain.

There is no word as yet if there will be yet another "Top 10" list involving McCain as lead up to the show (or even a Sarah Palin list to jab through association), although it is more likely as not, since the lists have become a staple of the show. In fact, Senator McCain has participated in the reading of a "Top 10" list.

The Letterman-McCain quasi-feud began on September 24 when Senator McCain canceled his appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" to "rush" off to Washington to help with the passage of the now infamous $700 billion bailout legislation. But the Senator was not being truthful. To David Letterman's publicly-displayed annoyance, the talk show host found out that Senator McCain was conducting an interview with CBS News' Katie Couric in the same building while he was taping his own show. By tapping into the in-house cameras, Letterman was able to watch McCain, making remarks like "Hey, John, I got a question! You need a ride to the airport?" Letterman's audience roared their approval.

Senator McCain soon found out it was not a very prudent move to slight David Letterman, to, as Letteman put it, to make him feel "like an ugly date."

And when Letterman later found out that McCain had not left New York until the following day to "rush" off to Washington, he began a barrage of non-stop jokes about McCain (and Palin) and lacing many of his questions to his guests with barbed phrases about McCain. When Paris Hilton appeared on the show, he asked her what she thought about the situation and prompted her by intimating that she had had problems of her own with Senator McCain, a reference to the now famous McCain campaign's Obama celebrity political ad.

A McCain spokesman would later say that the Senator had felt that, in light of the country's economic troubles, that it "wasn't a night for comedy."

Senator McCain's appearance this week comes in the middle of what looks like a mending bridges phase his campaign is going through. The presidential campaign has reached such a heated point from the GOP side that McCain's and Palin's rallies have begun to look like something out of a lynch mob scene in a B-list movie.

It all started when Governor Sarah Palin began making assertions that Senator Barack Obama was "palling around with terrorists," making a pointed reference to Senator Obama's brief associations with 60's radical William Ayers. As she repeated these insinuations at each rally, the rallies began to become heated. Then people began to stand up and angrily denounce Senator Obama and called for Senator McCain to fight back harder against Obama. Cries of "terrorist," "treason," "kill him," and various racial epithets could be heard as well. Governor Palin continued her attacks on how Senator Obama did not "see America" like most Americans view America, sometimes invoking the name of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But Senator McCain, either listening to advisers telling him that the angry rallies were reflecting badly upon him and his campaign or seeing it for himself, began trying to dampen the volatility of his audiences.

McCain told his supporters that he would fight but he would not be disrespectful. He told one audience member that he had nothing to fear if Senator Obama became president, that Obama was a decent person. He told another woman, who called Senator Obama an "Arab," that he was not. And he was booed when he suggested that his supporters respect the senator from Illinois.

Palin, however, has not stopped her references to William Ayers or Jeremiah Wright, the latter of which Senator McCain has foreswore off-limits.

Still, Senator McCain seems to have run his presidential campaign like an addict, doing whatever he had to to get the next fix. Enabled by his advisers, all that mattered was getting his public acceptance numbers up. And just like an addict who becomes self-aware of the damage he is inflicting on those around him and to himself, McCain has begun to try to smooth things over, make amends for past mistakes. It is part of every addiction program's path to recovery: The addict must make amends to those he's wronged in the past in order to start recovering and restoring things to normalcy.

Toning down the rhetoric and attempting to get his audiences to calm down was a start. Appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman" will continue the process.

But is it enough to save his campaign? That remains to be seen. With his poll numbers still slipping (Real Clear Politics polling average has McCain trailing by 7.3%), it all may be too little, too late.

It also remains to be seen if he can rein in his rabble-rousing running mate.

Whether or not David Letterman will simply let bygones be bygones will be found out Thursday night. The mock feud with McCain has no doubt been good for Letterman's ratings and Thursday night's show will probably set a record for late night talk show viewership.

Which will then put Emmy-winning Letterman in a Top 10 list as well.

Sources:

"The Late Show with David Letterman," CBS Television

CNN Television

CNN.comAssociated Press