McCain is Surrounded by Idiots
by John C. Dvorak

Last night I witnessed one of the biggest screw-ups I have ever seen in a Presidential campaign in my entire life. And this may cost me a lot of bets and it may cost john McCain the election. The culprits, though, are the apparent dummies handling the McCain schedule and strategy. These people should all be fired tomorrow. They are out-and-out idiots and I actually wonder who they really work for.

McCain was scheduled to do the David Letterman show. He’s a perfect match for Letterman and it would have been funny and endearing. But golly there is this economic situation that needed attention so McCain had to rush back to Washington. He even called Dave on the phone to cancel at the last minute.

Letterman was dubious and booked Obama-nut Keith Olberman as the substitute guest. It seems as if McCain was not heading to Washington after all but over to another studio where Katie Couric would bring him on the news hour. In fact they showed McCain getting powder in the set before the interview. Couric and Letterman are in-studio around the same time.

They put the feed of this right on Letterman’s show. He was steamed.

I have watched Letterman since the days when he was trying to do a daytime TV show and witnessed his show catching on fire. I saw him in the late late show when they would do the whole show as a cartoon or over-dub a Mexican’s voice. I know and love this show. One thing is consistent over the years. Letterman is extremely vindictive. He will go on bitching for weeks when someone does not show up or cancels at the last minute. They are never invited back. Anyone on the staff associated with the fiasco is in the doghouse for months.

So McCain does the news with Couric and lies to Letterman about having to go to the airport. Wonderful. Does McCain have anyone in his organization that knows anything about this sort of thing? Do they like the idea of relentless pounding with one-liners and harsh jokes day after day after day until November. They just invited such a barrage and they are going to have to live with the possibility that one of these nightly jokes will stick in the American public’s psyche and kill the election for McCain.

Why? Why did they allow this possibility to happen? I’ll tell you why. Because there are incompetents running the campaign. McCain has been plagued by this since the inception of the campaign.

Yeah, I know that I have a lot of wagers and my personal reputation riding on this election with my predictions from over two years ago saying that no Democrat would win this Presidential election in 2008. Yeah, I know and that’s why this sort of outlandish screw-up happening irks me to no end.

So what was the point of screwing over Letterman? It was obviously something cavalier within the management of this campaign. Some shit-head who did not know what he/she was doing but managed to lord it over the rest of the group.

The over management crises is also apparent with Sarah Palin and her obvious repeating of talking points without explanation. She did it with both Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. With Gibson he reworded the exact same question about Israel bombing Iran where she repeated the “I don’t think we should second-guess Israel.” She repeated her response word for word each time Gibson rephrased. She should have called out Gibson and said, “Charlie you are simply asking me the same question over and over and I’ve told you once already what I think. Why do you insist that I repeat myself?” But no, she acted like a robot instead, apparently afraid of someone behind the curtain. Afraid of some “expert” who knows better.

She was also stiff and unnatural with Couric. Palin is an obvious victim of over-coaching by someone in the campaign responsible for presentation, talking points and all the on-message baloney that takes the humanity out of the candidates.

Years ago, I remember seeing Democrat Walter Mondale on the Johnny Carson show after his defeat in the 1984 elections. The guy was incredibly funny, sharp and easily kept pace with Carson in a lively and amusing conversation. I wondered where was THIS guy during the election. He could have won. Instead the public got served an Al Gore-like stiff, obviously over-coached to not make mistakes. In football they call it “playing not to lose.” It usually results in a loss and it did for Mondale.

My advice to McCain and Palin: Get rid of this person who is screwing you over if you want to win this thing. They should be easy to find if you actually look.

Z on TV: Couric, Letterman too much for McCain and Palin – Sun critic David Zurawik writes about the business, culture and craziness of television – baltimoresun.com

Adding insult to injury, Letterman brought on MSNBC host and left-wing attack dog Keith Olbermann as the substitute guest for McCain.

During his chat with Olbermann, Letterman used the in-house CBS cameras and monitors to show McCain being readied for his interview with Couric on the set of the CBS Evening News.

“He doesn’t seem to be racing to the airport, does he?” Letterman said referring to McCain’s call earlier in the day when he told Letterman he was canceling because “the economy is cratering” and he has to rush back to Washington to work on a Wall Street bailout plan.

“Hey John, I got a question You need a ride to the airport?” Letterman yelled at the TV monitor as the in-house camera showed McCain talking to Couric.

The audience howled in delight at the merciless edge of Letterman’s anti-McCain barbs. The comedian also repeatedly asked why McCain didn’t send Palin in his place — suggesting the GOP handlers were afraid that she couldn’t handle it.