Did McCain Blow Off Letterman to Pre-Empt Sarah and Katie?
Help me with the timing on this.
Sometime–either earlier today or earlier this week–Sarah Palin sat down and taped an interview with Katie Couric. The first part of that interview airs this evening.
Then instead of showing up for a scheduled interview with David Letterman, and at a time when he said he had to run back to DC for emergency work to save the American economy, McCain did an interview with Katie Couric. In other words, after the McPalin campaign assessed how the Palin-Couric interview went, they put together a last minute interview between McCain and Couric.
As of this moment, CBS News has, as its lead story, McCain’s debate cancellation stunt. Not Sarah Palin’s second interview with a straight reporter. McCain has effectively pre-empted the interview with his running-mate.
I get the feeling that Palin-Couric interview went even worse than the Charlie Gibson one.
And perhaps not coincidentally, McCain is now trying to postpone the VP debate.
When I first read your title on this post EW, my eyes saw:
“Did McCain Blow
OffLetterman to Pre-Empt Sarah and Katie?”Shorter McSame: “I’m all yours Katie!”
Shorter Katie: “Eeeeewwwww.”
Most everyone could feel it was a stunt on McSame’s part. But I wasn’t sure it was only for McSame to get out of the debate himself — I knew there was more to this…and I think you might have it — pre-empt the Couric interview and bail out of the VP debate.
The Couric interview must be pretty funny. If Palin can’t handle talking to reporters or debating — she is not ready to be President. It’s time for the pitbull to face the press and the public.
Good God. Palin couldn’t even cough up McCain-Feingold??? Yeppers. McCain had to go cover that one up.
The McCain Campaign has set the stage for Sarah to Withdraw in order to spend more time with her family.
Early on, when it looked as if Palin had outstarred McCain, I speculated if he might “retire” after the convention, and wondered aloud as to what might then occur. More recently, I seem to note a struggle by the Palin camp to force the move, and perhaps resistance by the McC camp to return the favor. Who will dump whom? The Rs desperately need to assess their cards and decide where to place their money.
Does Palin have a reputation for that sort of thing?
Would’ve expected that to have come up during the vetting process. :=]
an interesting little tidbit I read today..and don’t me where, but I did read it and thought, “hmmmm…why did he do that?” Was that Johnny Mac discussed the economy today with…wait for it…Romney. why Romney? Why’d he pick Romney? Why not…Huckabee or Ron Paul or anyone of goodness knows how many other Repub people he ran against? And now this ..joke of an interview between America’s Toughest Interviewer(tm), Katie Couric? “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya..” WTF? Palin is just imploding before our eyes here…dissolving…all that’s missing is the witch’s hat, the bucket and “I’m melting, melting..oh, what a world…” Talking to Romney? Romney? Let’s see now…”Governor Sarah Palin says that her daughter’s pregnancy, impending marriage and the rebellion in Alaska are forcing her to go home, concedes status as running mate. John McCain announces that Gov. Mitt Romney is his first choice…”
I read that about McCain’s meeting with Romney, but I didn’t pick up on the probable reason. Ugh – Romney. Did you hear his speech at the Repub Convention?
actually, romney has a reputation (not compelling in my eyes, but there it is) as a strong ceo type, economic leader. some here in massachusetts think he hung the moon for balancing our budget. not many, mind you, as he did it by axing all sorts of programs for kids and prisons and, you know, people. oh yeah, and he claims credit for the new state health care program, which is quite good but really crafted by the dems on the leiglature.
still, your point is well-taken. except i just don’t think they have the cajunas to drop her, as that would look so weak and reflect so badly on his judgment, even if she did claim family matters. and god know – really – she has plenty of those. really.
“The McCain Campaign has set the stage for Sarah to Withdraw in order to spend more time with her family.”
That’s the only conceivable assessment, since CBS can always show the Palin interview later, couldn’t they?
I guess that might also be the reason why McCain wants to postpone everything– they not only have to figure out how to ease Palin out, but how to ease someone else in, in a way that doesn’t look cooked from the start.
Bob in HI
Many have suggested that this could have been the plan from the beginning.
It is amazing that the media ia letting MsCain get away with rushing back to straigthen out legislation having to do with the economy. This is the candidate who has on several occasions admitted that he does not know much about the economy. This “not knowing much” is supported by the fact that McCain has voted so often for deregulation.
Will the press ask him about his support for deregulation?
All of this talk about there is not time to examine how our nation got into this economic mess reminds me of the language that both Republicans and Democrats are using about Iraq. “Let’s all move on, turn the page, move forward, no time to look at how we got here, that is the past this i now.” Jesus Mary and Joseph how many times are we going to hear this horse shit?
You can bet your ass this is what we are going to hear after the election (if there is one) Time to move on , turn the page yada yada yada.
Accountability Now
Yup.
When you look at the timing, it’s enough to cause suspicion.
When you look at it as part of a pattern of ‘crisis-we-need-a-solution-right-now-you-have-no-time-to-think’ it really makes one cynical.
And the whole notion of the ‘markets melting’ smacks of rigging. Although I’m still rational enough to recognize that social dynamics — like panic in a fire-filled auditorium — cause unusual group behavior, the timing of this ‘meltdown’ sure looks as if interested parties are now cashing in because they think Obama is going to win.
follow the money made during the Bush administration, defense,oil, banking. Mission Accomplised.
Well I gues this has been the case during most administrations. It’s just that the profits made are “record breaking”
But ultimately self defeating.
Munitions built and designed to use vast quantities of petrochemical products simply can’t be sustained into the 21st century.
Neofeudalism failed to recognize the biological parameters of life on the planet; foolish of them, although that won’t stop them from continuing to delude themselves as the center of the financial world shifts to Dubai.
Would it be irresponsible to speculate how McLame will extricate himself from Sarah Snowbilly? It would be irresponsible not to. What’s the one thing that has the potential to scuttle her in one short news cycle? Troopergate. That whole scandal would have blown up weeks ago if not for the GOP sending all the wingnut legal talent money can buy up to Alaska to quash it. Loosen the screws just a little bit – couple of well-placed leaks about the workers comp carrier, say – and Sarah’s on the first salmon boat back to Wasilla. Problem solved.
Some of those loosening screws are in the National Enquirer. It is personal, and history, so maybe it isn’t the blue dress du jour, but, the evangelical wingnut young earthers aren’t going to like their madonna of the clay feet.
They’re not going to admit that she HAS feet of clay.
Another leftist conspiracy, donchaknow, against god’s annointed.
Sounds like they need a bit of marriage counseling…
The more I think about this…that must be why today Laura Bushie said Palin lacked Foreign Policy experience, I can’t remember Stepford Laura ever make any poltical comment/judgement of consequence in the past eight years.
Maybe Palin is on her way out…we can only hope so after reading that Couric interview!
If you’ve never had the challenge of dealing with a person like Palin, you may not realize that this is a woman who will pull everyone down with her before she admits to a mistake.
And see the Rayne link to National Enquirer (yeah, grim, I know, but Alaska has more than one town where former lovers and spouses end up running into one another over the frozen dinner section of the local grocery, or at the local bar).
Owning up to mistakes is not Palin’s strong point.
Palin’s a disaster, but she doesn’t strike me as the type to go quietly. She’ll take someone(s) down with her.
more than willing to take down someone with her..just like Bush. It’s just that Bush/Cheney have been more than willing to take everyone down with them.
Letterman had Keith Olbermann as a sub for McCain, and . . . well, just go read what the NYT blog “The Caucus” had to say:
I think Mrs. Peterr and I will be watching Letterman tonight.
Well, at least McCain didn’t call Letterman and tell him he was washing his hair tonight.
told ya primcess pandora had a dhit load more disasters in her
the witch doctor story in number 1 on countdown
now the katie couric interview tanked ???
she’s george bush in lipstick folks
everything she touches turns to shit
TPM has this statement up from the Obama Campaign:
Huh?
What the game plan here? Why would a Republican president call in the Democratic candidate for an economic policy meeting?
Is it because they think Obama will win? Was Bush and/or his advisors ordered by interests in the financial world to include Obama?
Or is Bush, et. al., simply convinced that they won’t get anything through the Senate without Obama’s support and involvement?
This strikes me as very, very strange. Something weird is happenning. Especially when Mr. Unilateral starts reaching out to the Democratic Presidential nominee.
.
Junya feels left out so he’s inviting the cool guys to his
pitypretzel party.The though occured to me that they are somehow setting him up. He’ll definately be outnumbered in there.
If it’s a closed meeting they can all come out and say he’s the only one holding things up, or that it was clear he has no understanding.
Either that or they just flat want to extort him behind closed doors.
If I were Obama, I’d insist that the meeting be public, or at the very least that some well respected Dems other than himself be in the room.
One thing is for sure, they don’t care what he thinks – they either need something from him really, really badly or they have some sort of rat-fucking planned.
Be careful, Barrack, snake pit dead ahead.
the meeting is not just the two of them, but includes mccain and other congressional leaders.
From the CBS Katie “But I’m a Cheerleader” Couric – MsBull…winkle interview:
A long with a batch of freshly baked Moose cookies or Jeebus Loves Ya’ doughnuts.
oh my god.
that is too dreadful for words.
relax, the mets ain’t blown it yet …
oh, you wasn’t talkin bout that ???
did presnit bunny pants failed to inspire anyone
what a surprise
the mets just put it “a refugee from the mexican league”
that was a surprise …
“I’ll get back to you on that”. Ms P has mastered the lingo; administration material, for sure.
FWIW, I actually thought Katie Couric had a good little Steel Magnolia moment there — not rude, not brusque, but definitely starting to point out bullshit.
More, please.
oh, yeah. but steel magnolia? i was thinking more arch, like maybe bette davis with joan crawford.
go here and watch the whole thing and see if you don’t agree that katie is only barely hiding her contempt of poor sarah:
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/
it’s pretty …awful, really.
FWIW, I’m really intrigued by the women that I have heard talk about Palin, and the increasingly visceral, outraged indignation — more than one claims to have sent money to Obama the first time they heard Palin speak at the GOP convention.
If true, then that helps explain Obama/Biden’s phenomenal fundraising in August. Palin is incredibly polarizing, and we’re finally seeing it play out. What she says about John McCain’s lack of judgment is stupendously grim.
I’m amazed at the intensely passionate, deeply personal things that I’ve heard people reveal when Palin is the conversation trigger. (I’m in the demographic that still remembers back alley abortions, and the word ‘coathanger’ has some ominous reverberance.) I thought passions were high in 2004, but Palin’s ability to generate intense alarm is in ‘the Cheney range’.
i agree, though i think there are greater diffs between palin and cheney than lipstick. she’s actually so much more like bush, i feel, with mccain channeling cheney’s vindictive temper.
those new details out about palin’s affair with todd’s snowmobile partner, names and affidavits and witnesses, etc. slimey little peyton place trash gossip, i know. but somehow these truths expose just how utterly stupid and depraved choosing her was.
i also agree that she is the type who will pull any and everyone down with her, even if she ends up destroying herself (not the best with foresight, it appears). as she has made abundantly clear.
so i can easily imagine a scenario where mccain’s peeps start talking about how this may not have been such a great idea, and she gets all puffed up and threatens to expose everything if they drop her from the ticket, including the wrath of god and all his various assemblies.
it will be interesting, because we all know the republicans have already set up a machinery in alaska, and they can just smirk and tell her she’s toast on every dimension if she squawks (the same way they muscle their way around the hill; anyone know why barney franks is so easily caving??). especially reminding her that of course then obama will win. i can even imagine in this scenario that she’ll get all huffy and say she doesn’t care, she’ll run without mccain and then grab his balls till he collapses. and she’s in. no that’s too silly.
so, wondering if the enquirer news has had anything to do with the panic in the mccain camp. though nealdeesit, i agree, that interview was beyond a train wreck; it was a full throttle kamikaze into a munitions arsenal. i’m thinking the mccain/wall street camp noticed that palin was not keeping johnny’s numbers up, and that she likely wouldn’t given her interview quotient (forget about press conferences), so they had to pull their heavy weapon out of the hat.
but it’s more likely they were hoping to stave this econ crisis off till january and let the dems own it.
and if barney franks pushes his cave to a vote, the dems WILL own it!! how can he be so STUPID??
call his office NOW:
202-225-5931
that’s why I call her “Princess Pandora”
she’s gonna be a whole box full of fun for the repuglitards
when we need jerry springer to referee the repuglitard debates in 2012, you can thank princess pandora
freep’s term, “Princess Pandora”, strikes me as apt ;-))
I’ll have to watch that interview at some point today (and I gather that it’ll be an uncomfortable experience, although I’d say it sounds as if Katie Couric — being a mom who’s raised kids after the death of a spouse is perhaps the **most fitting interviewer** to not put up with Palin’s bizarre, heartless notions. FWIW, several of the women in my network who’ve raised children as ’single moms’ after the death of their spouses absolutely **loathe** Palin).
As for being flipped out that ‘all the evangelicals will follow Palin and McCain off a cliff’, I’m not all that convinced its true. It took me awhile to realize that we tend to use the term “evangelical” as a synonym for ‘unreasonable, belligerently ignorant, refusing to examine facts’ in some parts of the blogosphere.
That’s far too simplistic. I had a long conversation some weeks back with friends that I’ve known for years who are ‘evangelicals’. Their families and church are the core of their lives, and they’ve supported ever school bond and levy issue for 20 years, operated a local food bank, and use a good portion of their money for private, anonymous support of charities they believe in. They’re fiscally responsible, so Bush makes them nuts. They’re firm believers that ‘as you do to the least of my brethren, you do also unto me,’ so the whole torture and GITMO news makes them nuts.
Shorter: to my surprise, there is absolutely no way that particular (admittedly small, anecdotal) group will vote for Palin. I suspect that they’d vote for Bob Barr before they vote for McCain.
It should be an interesting election.
actually, that subgroup of evangelicals is not as small as you might think, and they’ve been very active since before the 04 election. this group is particularly angry with bush for using them, and they take the christian stewardship of the planet very seriously, as well as issues like poverty and corruption. and of course the war and the torture shame them terribly.
they’re out there:
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=1369
Yeah, it took me awhile to follow the tips and hints of some in my extended network. I’m really heartened to see this. For a long time, when I thought ‘evangelical,’ it conjured up intolerance.
There is a larger, far more thoughtful mix.
And they do a lot of good things.
I wish that they’d caught on to Climate Care a decade ago, but on the upside their depth of believe makes them ‘move mountains’ when they become engaged. Here’s hoping… because THAT is one huge ‘mountain’ to move… (And FWIW, no surprise at all to me that Al Gore is actually a member of this large group, just that many of us don’t generally see him that way.)
mets and cubbies, tied at 5 in the 5th
Zambrano just checked out
is there anything wlae on ???
W thinks we’re stupid.
That’s understandable since he thinks everybody else is just like him.
Oh, for the love of dog. W is absolutely panicked.
John McCain is making Chicken Little look as calm as a Swiss bureaucrat.
The man just can’t be counted on to stay steady in a crisis. In fairness, I suppose that in the Pet Goat era, at least recognizing there’s a crisis is a step up.
He’s just unsteady. Democrats need to just keep saying this over and over for the next forty days.
Me:
Ah, Bush’s speech answers that question: Because it a bipartisan meeting of the Congressional leadership – which is to say, the meeting McCain demanded this afternoon.
In other words, Bush just used the power of presidential request to hamstring Obama into putting his own campaign on hold, and probably into acquiescing to McCain’s demand to postpone the Friday debate.
.
in other important news
wow
matt millen got fired today
bout time
What does Couric’s sexual orientation have to do with anything?
snark
6-6 going into the ninth at shea
how’s bunnypants doin ???
the phillies were losing last I heard …
Two other things to add to the mix:
– National Enquirer’s latest on Palin released today;
– “Dozens” greet McCain yesterday in mid-Michigan — yup, dozens.
On top of polls this morning showing that voters think more of Obama’s ability to address this so-called economic crisis.
Just saw a clip of the Palin/Couric interview on CNN. When asked about the lobbyist connection, Palin sounded like a malfunctioning robot who couldn’t compute the faulty logic that Davis “recused himself”.
OT- bmaz, Rachael Maddow did an extended piece on the Keating-Five tonight. You’d love it. She said there would be more….
Yes, Rachel’s Keating Five story was well done. Now if we could get the rest of the press to cover it.
Note to Obama’s campaign & any creative 527s — Keating Five & $700 Billion Bailout would make a nice ad
OT (sort of) Chinese banks ordered to halt lending to American banks
OT – Dick Cheney was magically and secretly bcc’d on the National Security Council’s emails.
I sure hope those bcc’s were going to a secure government system and not into the gwb43.com or other RNC domains!
http://www.propublica.org/arti…..dency-923/
I know I’ve pointed out before the puzzling lack of emails that showed any use of mailing lists by EO/OVP staff in an environment using Exchange. Never made sense; in a corporate environment, they’re used all the time by teams and departments and projects.
Which means the EO/OVP pointedly didn’t provide emails during discovery that were mailed to lists — and quite possibly the missing emails were deleted because sanitizing those that were copied to secret lists could not be harvested for discovery without exposing the secret lists.
EW — what time did the Letterman show get taped? and what time did the Bush speech really occur — was it tape delay? Seems like they’d even play the lag in time because of POTUS’ speech if they were really desperate.
It’s as if Wall Street has a Spy Managing the McCain Campaign, and a Spy Managing the Treasury.
If the FBI is looking into a couple of dozen Banks at the heart of this Financial Meltdown – Freddie and Fannie included – for Fraud, then why wouldn’t Rick Davis and Hank Paulson be Persons of Interest?
– Davis lied on his Conflict of Interest Declarations Form in May
– taking Big Money from Freddie Mac every Month
– Freddie, Fannie and AIG get ‘Saved’
– Wall Street goes into Full-Blown Crisis
– Lehman goes Down
– Paulson’s Goldman-Sachs declared Winner and made a Commercial Bank
It looks *just like* Collusion to Rig a Bid – it’s hard not to conclude Rick was ‘at the table’ when the ‘Winners’ and ‘Losers’ got designated during the 6-8 week ‘contingency’ planning period prior to the Bailout – and his ‘Client’ was Spared – as part of Paulson’s larger “Financial Services Re-structuring” Money-Grab and Steamroller-Play.
At the very least, the Freddie-Mac payments to Davis should Dispell any notions about McCain being Anti-Warshinton and Anti-Lobbyists.
But, potentially, Davis is troubling because his role suggests that he is more than Just a Lobbyist for Freddie-Mac – he could very well also be a Stealth Operator for Wall Street, Inc – running a Presidential Campaign.
You and I are having similar thoughts.
I was wondering whether I was too far out in tinfoil hat territory, but it seems there are at least two of us out here…
As KO pointed out tonight, she is a nutcase beyond what has been known.
Warren Buffet, no fool he, invested $5bil in Paulsen’s ability to save his own ass with his access to the treasury’s back door.
Bingo
Given how “base” the Evangelical base is, many are likely to receive the word of Ms. Palin’s alleged affair on the cover of the National Enquirer as “gospel,” particularly when viewed in the context of the recent “revelations” regarding the Edwards affair.
actually, the mccain campaign threatened to sue the enquirer when they called for comment on this latest little juicy tidbit. enquirer’s response was something on the order of, do your worst, but we’ve been on this investigation since late august, which is more than you can say.
ya gotta love it.
Yeah, even I’d heard rumors from more than one source.
Smoke. Fire.
Speaks volumes about McCain’s inability to manage the cognitive complexity, prioritization, and tasks required of a key decision maker in a large city, let alone a federal government.
I think the whole point of the McCain manuever is to keep Palin off the debate stage. She is simply not able to do it, and may never be. This is not about delaying the presidential debate. It is about eliminating the vice-presidential debate.
This assessment of the Couric-Palin interview from Balloon Juice:
I’m still in shock over how terrible the Palin/Couric interview was. “Train wreck” is being charitable – it was more like a train derailing on a bridge, tumbling a thousand feet into a canyon and landing on a pile of old dynamite and gas drums. And then a jumbo jet crashed into the flaming wreckage. Followed by an earthquake that caused the whole mess to slide off a cliff into the sea, where the few miraculous survivors were eaten by sharks.
so!
she can still hunt, bare children, and wrinkle her nose..
Marci, have you got any idea at all, what we would give or give-up to see you interview Palin? PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!