Video: Letterman lionizes, then savages no-show McCain

It started with lavish praise; always a sign of trouble. And then David Letterman launched a screed about the evening’s canceled guest, John McCain, that has no parallel among broadcast network dust-ups with presidential candidates since Dan Rather went upside the head of George Bush I over Iran/contra in 1988.

First the Letterman video, then Rather and Bush. There’s a partial transcript of the Letterman monologue below the jump.

Letterman: John McCain no-show monologue (9:11)

CBS Evening News: Dan Rather and VP George Bush, 1/25/88 (9:37)

DAVID LETTERMAN: “This is not the John McCain I know, by God. It makes me believe something is going haywire with the campaign…. Sure there’s an economic crisis, and here’s what you do if you’re running a campaign in the middle of an economic crisis and it’s about to crater. That’s a quote from him. I love that expression: The economy is about to crater!…

“So the economy is about to crater. You’re a fourth-term senator from Arizona. You go back to Washington. You handle what you need to handle. Don’t suspend your campaign. You let your campaign go on, shouldered by your vice-presidential nominee. That’s what you do. You don’t quit!

“Or–is that really a good thing to do? This guy doesn’t have an ounce of quit in him. So we’re suspending the campaign…. You say ‘I’ve got to get back to Washington and save this country,’ and good for you. ‘And while I’m gone, campaigning in my stead will be my running mate from the great state of Alaska, Sarah Palin.’ Then she comes out and campaigns.

“What happened there? What’s the problem? Where is she? Why isn’t she doing that?”

PAUL SCHAEFER: “She is a good-looking babe. You’ve got to admit that.”

LETTERMAN: “Exactly. That’s the point I’m trying to make. So I don’t know. But you heard it here first: This doesn’t smell right… This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody’s putting something in his Metamucil. And let’s say there’s a time of crisis–because the poor guy is a little older, he’s about my age–and then Sarah Palin takes over. Well, she ought to be ready, because she’s handled crises like this in the past. Oh, wait a minute, she really hasn’t handled a crisis like this in the past.”