The Letterman Effect

Stuff like this is far from the most important thing in a presidential campaign, but given their disproportionate influence on public opinion, I don’t think it’s a good plan to get on the wrong side of a popular late night TV talk show host.

Call it the Blagojevichian Political Tone Deafness Syndrome (BPTDS) or whatever you like, but it just makes no sense to needlessly make enemies that can harm you. Lying to Letterman was just dumb. My guess is that had McCain just cancelled and been done with it, he might have gotten a few snarky jabs thrust at him but not two nights of full-blown comedic tirade. Judgment matters.

Just as an aside: My, Letterman is looking and sounding old. I haven’t been a regular Lettermen viewer since the mid-1980s. (Almost any television show has no more than a three or four year shelf life with me.) That’s not to say I haven’t seen his show at all, I just don’t tune in regularly and I rarely, if ever, see the whole thing. I tuned in two nights ago to see the McCain bashing fun but that was a special occasion. I came away kind of shocked that while Letterman seems as mentally sharp as ever, his delivery is much less energetic and his speech is a little “old” sounding these days.

Not that I’m getting any younger. In fact, that may be the problem. Even the young, brash icons of my youth are now getting old. And then there’s the fact that, with increasing frequency, I find that I’ve never heard of the host and/or musical act on any given Saturday Night Live.