And now I have seen the Thursday night show as well. That was the bit I expected to see originally, and Katie said she expected it, and Dave said the Post was right, and he should have asked her about it, and he just forgot about it because of his hard on for Sarah Palin.
JW mentioned that Katie seemed uncomfortable earlier (Monday?) and I agree. Interestingly she was much more at ease and perky on the phone Thursday night. Maybe both Katie and Dave were off their game a little on Monday. Just to clarify one note from Thomas below, Katie said that McCain called her to explain his suspension, and she asked him to come on the show to explain it to the public himself. She says she didn't know he was supposed to be Dave at the same time. When Dave whipped out the Post I thought he was going to bash them for being pinheads and daring to criticize him, and I thought it was classy for him to just say "you know, they were right, I blew it" and then do the phone bit, which was funny in its own right. In terms of late night entertainment value, it probably worked out better than if he had just asked her about it originally. I still think Katie knew she was stealing McCain from Dave, and I still think she or some other honcho at CBS News was pissed at Dave for airing the in-house feed, and I think that was part of why she was so uncomfortable on Monday, and maybe part of Dave's motivated forgetting to bring it up. Aside from the entertainment value, there is some substantive interest here. We now know (if anyone ever doubted) that there was heated discussion in the McCain campaign as to how he should respond to the financial crisis. They consciously went for the campaign "suspension" in an attempt to steal a march on Obama, put him on the defensive, and get out of a jam. They never really planned or intended to suspend their campaign - they just wanted to avoid the debate they thought they were going to lose, and find a way to re-create McCain's public perception relating to the economy. The whole "Letterman Incident" was part of the manufacturing of this false perception. Canceling the high profile date with Dave was supposed to underscore how serious McCain was about the economy; going on Katie to explain how serious he was allowed him to campaign while not seeming to campaign. The only problem was that the McCain camp was so out of touch they did not realize that Dave was taping at the same time as the Katie interview, or that their duplicity could easily become common knowledge and blow up in their faces. They also apparently were not fans of David Letterman, and did not understand how relentlessly and shamelessly he will gnaw on the same bone when he feels he has been screwed. I think Dave's response to the incident had a small but detectable influence on the campaign - not because any significant fraction of voters take their cue from him on how to vote, but because the focus he put on McCain's duplicity, both directly and indirectly through the news media's coverage of Dave's reaction, really undermined any (probably remote) possibility that McCain's gamble on the "suspension" would work, and underlined the narrative of McCain as "more of the same". On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:10 AM, Thomas Allen Heald, Esquire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> So it didn't make sense to expect Dave to bring up the incident with >> Katie after he had shown the video of McCain at her desk stiffing him >> night after night? There actually are some unanswered questions there. > > Phone followup on last night's show. > >> Did Katie know McCain was supposed to be taking with Dave at that >> time? > > No. > >> Did she somehow influence McCain to dump Dave and do her show >> instead? > > No. > >> Was she irritated with Dave for playing it over and over? > > Apparently not. > >> Did she think McCain's "suspension" made any sense? > > She says McCain phoned her. And wanted to have him on to explain rather > than have her report on it. (Aka spinning it.) > >> I guess you could say that is all old news since the campaign is over, >> but that did not stop Dave from asking a lot of Palin questions. > > === > Palin keeps foisting herself upon the public. McCain, aside from the > meeting with Obama, is not. > > <http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/sarah-palin-pardons-turkey-while-others.html> > Sarah Palin pardons turkey, while others are being slaughtered, on > camera, behind her > > She just gave an entire press conference for five minutes in front of a > guy killing turkeys on camera. Oh my God, I'm laughing so hard I'm > crying. I know it's sick, but she's such a blithering idiot. At one > point, oblivious to the fact that some guy is killing turkeys on camera > ten feet behind her, she says "we'll probably invite criticism for doing > this!" > > === > >> The only reason not to bring it up is either the answers would >> embarrass Katie, or the questions would irritate CBS (though in the >> old days that would have been a reason for Dave to do it). I guess the >> real second reason is maybe Dave now regrets showing the internal >> footage himself. > > Maybe Dave accepted McCain's apology on air? > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Like TV only smarter. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
