McCain: 'I Screwed Up' but 'Can't Explain'

John McCain was once more the slated guest on "Late Show with David Letterman" Thursday.



This time, the host warned in his monologue, "maybe I won't show."

McCain famously blew off Dave three weeks ago saying he had to fly to Washington to fix the economic crisis, only to stick around in New York and do a different CBS show (with Katie Couric).

Letterman reviewed the snub in a segment involving maps, arrows, a limo and a picture of Couric.

Then McCain finally did come out, saying "I screwed up" twice, but otherwise not offering any other explanation or apology. Paul Shaffer had it right by playing him on with the Who's "Can't Explain."

"I screwed up," McCain said. "What can I say? What can I say? It's been reviewed pretty well what happened. We've been through this."

But it hadn't, and they hadn't, and it was telling how unforthcoming he was, comparing the whole line of inquiry apparently with his being held prisoner of war, saying, "I haven't had so much fun since my last interrogation."

He didn't know the half of it.

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=mncswlqo2D0]

After Letterman magnanimously said "I'm willing to put this behind us," he tore into the candidate in a way that few have before - be they moderators, professional reporters or opposition candidates.

Since one of the conditions of putting it behind him was getting McCain to promise to come back to the show if he was elected and also have Sarah Palin on (Letterman said he also wanted to be "the guy who sits in the outer office reading magazines").

Then the host went on a very emotional, but understandable rant trying to get McCain to defend his choice of McCain and veer him from his standard stump response.

On Palin, Letterman began:

Either you're right or you're wrong. Either you know what you're talking about or you don't know what you're talking about. I'm just telling you from my perspective: I thought on my god. I'm sure she's a lovely woman. I'm sure she did a good job in Alaska. But in terms -

Then he reframed the question as a bigger picture:

I'm 61. I've never seen things in this big a mess. I've seen economic problems. I've seen war. I've never seen a combination of things quite like this. I've never seen the free fall diminishment of impression people have of the United States around the [world]. I've never seen anything like this. I have a four year old son I wonder what the hell...

"I'm thinking this is a pretty important job," Letterman went on, returning to the Palin question. "And so I'm wondering..."

McCain didn't answer much except to say that Palin gave people hope and he was "proud" of her, as if, Jon Stewart pointed out the same night, she were his daughter.

Letterman pressed on the responsibility to stand up to ugly comments made by supporters at a rally and wondered why McCain's campaign kept bringing up Obama's supposed relations with Bill Ayers, former member of the Weather Underground.

McCain defended this and Lettman asked, well, didn't the Arizona senator "pal around" with people like G. Gordon Liddy?

He could have phrased it G the Plumber, since Liddy was the head of the group calling themselves plumbers who broke into the Watergate hotel. Liddy did time for his part in the burglary and later became a right wing talk show host.

"I know Gordon Liddy," McCain felt it was important to say, even coming back from a commercial. "He paid his debt. He went to prison and paid his debt, as people do. I'm not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."

This apparently despite Liddy's famous suggestion on air twice that if Federal agents are coming in to seize firearms, aim at their heads. Or his expression of near swooning for Hitler's voice as heard on the radio ("he sent an electric current through my body").

The main thing, McCain said, is that he's been "completely open" about his relationship, suggesting Obama had tried to deny any relationship he had with Ayers (they were on a committee together and the now respected Chicago professor had been an early supporter).

Then Letterman asked about the other part of Palin's charge that Obama had been "pallin' around with terrorists" with an s. Who exactly are the other terrorists he's been supposedly palling around with?

"There's millions of words said in politics," McCain said, explaining that it may have been a gaffe.

But, Letterman accurately pointed out, "That's where we live!"

In politics, the words you say are important.