David Letterman Mocks McCain Loss: "You Don't Show Up For Me, America Doesn't Show Up For You" (VIDEO)

"Attention passengers, the Straight Talk Express is no longer in service," David Letterman opened his "Late Show" monologue Wednesday night.

The late night host, who famously sparred with John McCain after the Republican candidate canceled on a scheduled appearance, only to be caught on tape filming an interview with Katie Couric at the time he was due with Letterman, then openly mocked McCain over his loss.

"I would like to say one thing to John McCain," Letterman said. "Listen, Senator: you don't show up for me, America doesn't show up for you."

Letterman also joked about the Obama transition.

"I think I speak for most Americans when I say, anybody mind if he starts a little early? Would that be a problem?"

Watch:

Previously:

WATCH: John McCain On Letterman: "I Screwed Up"
David Letterman On John McCain Rescheduling: He's "Being Squirrely," "I Just Don't Know If We Can Trust Him"
David Letterman, John McCain To Make Up: Report
David Letterman: "McCain's Problems Began When He Bailed Out On This Show"
David Letterman: Top Ten "Things Overheard At Palin Debate Camp"
WATCH: David Letterman's War Against John McCain Day 4: "Good Thing John McCain Blew Me Off To Go Save The Economy"
WATCH: David Letterman vs. John McCain Continues: "McCain Loves Bailouts, He Bailed Out On Me!"
CBS News Executives "Aggravated" By Letterman's Use Of Internal News Feed
WATCH: Letterman Attacks McCain Day 2: "I Feel Like An Ugly Date"
WATCH: John McCain Cancels Letterman Appearance, Letterman Catches Him In A Lie

Comments

[joeshoe2]

David Letterman....if you need more data for you top ten try these out...

Due to a 250 word limitation you can read them here:
http://www.nationmakers.com/com_goals.htm

[joeshoe2]

Dave Letterman...here is a top ten for you....

While you read these top ten, see if you can imagine our new president expanding on these top ten..

due to a 250 word limitation you will have to read them here:
http://www.nationmakers.com/com_man.htm

[MargaretO]

Hilarious! Love you, Dave.

[JiwonSong]

I think Letterman actually feels sorry about McCain

[Krikkit]

Seemed like a bit of a cheap shot considering he let the man come back on his show and grovel before the campaign ended. Not cool.

[That One]

Letterman Rocks..... Leno Sucks....

[pottery]

"The Road to the White House runs right through here. Yessir."

Unnecessary jab. Dave is a little full of himself. Take your job seriously, but not yourself, Dave. He came, he apologized. Put it behind you.

Right. Yawn.

[notb observer]

Letterman is a comedian and The Daily Show and Colbert Report are also comedy shows. They have no responsibility to be "fair and balanced" !

On the other hand, the news media has a responsibility to inform, not to shape opinion or interpret current events. We need a collective slap upside the head for letting ourselves become uninformed and uninterested in our politics ! We have been bad, bad citizens, and we need to smarten up ! The 1st Amendment guarantees the press the right to probe and question ON OUR BEHALF - They have a ticket to go where the People cannot. It is OUR responsibility to inform ourselves and make OUR OWN judgements on the facts. The press IS NOT responsible for interpreting the fact and giving us our pre-digested Fox opinion !!

We allowed the Iraq war to happen, but now we are generally opposed to it. What has changed is that the war did not go as planned and there were no WMDs. Both of these things would have been evident if we had a real press corps in this country who had had the balls to relentlessly investigate instead of toeing the party line !

To those who oppose the return of the Fairness Doctrine, ask yourselves: Was the press so terrible before the Doctrine was eliminated by Reagan in 1988 ? No, it was a h3ll of a lot better than what we have today !! Where are the Woodwards & Bernsteins of our

[wildervine]

I happen to catch his whole monologue and Dave had a lot more to say than what was shown on this clip- all of it hilarious. Letterman has always had a sharp edge to his humor and I don't know why anyone would expect McCain to be spared- especially given the two-faced stunt he pulled by snubbing Letterman for Couric.

[Zoica]

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Evidently David Letterman hath!
Methinks the man with the very large ego doth protest too much!

[ThirdSection]

Now that Missouri is no longer a reliable bellwether, we've got Dave Letterman.

[behindthescene]

LETTERMAN WAS QUITE VOCAL DURING THIS ELECTION...WILL HE DO THE CORRECT GREEN THING??

EVERYONE STILL HOPES LETTERMAN WILL SELL/DONATE/REZONE HIS MULTI-MILION $ GATED HOME IN GREENWICH, CT...TO MOVE THE GREEN MOVEMENT FORWARD AND DOWNSIZE...

NO WORD YET...KEEP YOU POSTED

[funnypaysoff]

As we say in Jersey...Hey Dave, Who died and left you freaking boss!
Letterman's monologues's are the meanest I have ever heard from him and they are consistently missing punch lines...You get paid to make people laugh...Dave... nobody really cares what you think...
Steve Allen and Johnny Carson are shaking their heads right now.......­.......Sad­..........­.

[PhDiva]

He's certainly boss of his own show. McCain lied to him and got busted. Letterman isn't being mean. He just told people what happened. Your candidate, McCain, lost, and blaming Letterman isn't going to change that.

[TrueBlue1112]

Oh, but they do care; I care for one! Kudos to Letterman for being vocal and letting his opinions be known, while making us laugh; not an easy thing to do.

[caseydc78]

I happen to be what you would call a "leftist." Though I would not call a conservative a "rightist." I also believe that all of us are entitled to say whatever we want to. I think it says somewhere in the first amendment something about freedom of speech. In that little piece of paper called the Constitution that Bush doesn't care too much for. I'm glad we elected somebody who has a degree in Constitutional law. By the way, is it possible for Bush to take an early retirement? I'm sure most Americans wouldn't mind. Bush probably wants to be out of there as much as everybody else does. Let a real president take over now.

[zippy01]

I wasn't calling Democrats leftist, but there is an undeniable movement among the far left wing to impose the "Fairness Doctrine". See the recent comments of Sen. Schumer as evidence. The very fact he equated opposing political speech with pornography is ridiculous. Obama should avoid and resist this move by the far left wing to dominate the government.

[cgoodie]

Amen! I tend toward the left in domestic policy...however, the market should dictate what we listen to on publicly owned airwaves. If there was a market for more left leaning entertainment, we would have it. It should not be legislated. This election is proof that we can make up our minds without more leftwing radio/TV talk shows!

[zippy01]

So when the left shoves the "Fairness Doctrine" down our throats, Letterman, Olbermann, Maddow, Oprah, Matthews, Couric and untold others will be giving time to the conservatives? I doubt it. The left never ceases to amaze me with the assertion that they are for free speech, but only when it agrees with them. Hypocrites all. Change? Not even remotely. Partisan? More than ever.

[Mij13]

I think the left is for free speech; it's just that the right hasn't hasn't been able to make much sense lately.

[zippy01]

Whether one makes sense or not is not a requirement of the First Amendment. There are some pretty whacko comments from the left in these posts, but they have a right to say them without any interference from the government. The very concept of the "Fairness Doctrine" is unconstitutional. Agree with you or not, I would defend your right to speak. The leftists cannot say the same.

[rharris513]

Matthews doesn't give time to the conservatives? You did hear about Michelle Bachman right? Her comment was ON the Chris Matthews show!

And Letterman DID have McCain as a guest and Couric DID interview Palin.

Rachel Maddow and Olbermann ALWAYS publically invite the "oher side" to their show...they just don;t want to show up because they know they will not get a free pass.

Case in point, David Frum on Maddow tried to attack her and he was handed his ass!

[notb observer]

Ever since Reagan emaciated the Fairness Doctrine back in 1988, the tenure of discourse in "mainstream media" has deteriorated to name calling, political advertising and a sick fascination with the irrelevant. Coupled with the Neo-Con de-regulation agenda, we end up with 95-97% of the national media controlled by 5 corporations.

The media should be accountable for its programming, like any company should be accountable for its products. This is particularly true in the news domain.

When the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated, this country lost a great 1st Amendment asset. An army of professional investigative reporters vanished, as did the right to equal time. Without prying reporters like Bernstein and Woodward, would the People have allowed the Iraq war or all the other crimes and treasonous acts committed by the Bush Administration to happen ?

Olberman and Air America are a reaction to abuse of the airwaves by Fox, Limbaugh and O'Reilly. Reinstating the fairness doctrine would put these people out of business, and return some semblance of impartiality and public service to the news.

Do some research ! The Fairness Doctrine was created at the dawn of the radio age when insightful legislators realized the airwaves could be abused for political ends. The Doctrine was further enhanced following WW II based on the tragic and criminal effects of mass media control of the NAZI propaganda machine.

[zippy01]

I did do some research, and it started as a ban against editorializing, which by the end of the Forties had been somewhat relaxed to allow it if an opposing voice was also offered. Long story short, after some tweaks and adjustment, was seen to have had the effect of chilling the airwaves to public discourse, and further there was an abundance of stations on which to find opposing viewpoints, so the doctrine had become largely irrelevant. There are in fact left leaning shows on local stations, but they don't have the backing to go national. That is how the market works. The left leaning of Hollywood, many print venues and many television hosts and pundits should more than counter a few nationally syndicated radio shows. The real issue is that without visual aids, there is no substance to most of the left leaning radio I have listened to. They reminded me of political shock jock shows. Not very original or engaging listening to a bunch of name calling and nonsense.

[pjburke]

Get an education. Inform yourself.

The point, purpose, intent, and effect of the Fairness Doctrine was to prevent the current state of near-totalitarian control of the broadcast airwaves by the small cabal of Republican-favoring corporate media conglomerates whose lobbyist lawyers purchased the favor from the foolish, democracy-hating, profit-worshipping Reagan Administration.

You speak as if your cramped and curdled minority ideology is somehow entitled to its illegitimate dominance of the broadcast spectrum. The airwaves -- and equal access to use them -- belong to all of the people of America.

As Justice Byron White said:

“There is no sanctuary in the First Amendment for unlimited private censorship operating in a medium not open to all.”

[cgoodie]

You must be a talk show wanna be who has no financial backing or audience.

[zippy01]

You don't know anything about me or what I know and/or believe. The point, purpose and intent was to provide equal time or no time as there were but few stations and very limited choices. The airwaves do not in fact belong to us all. They are paid for. They are driven by advertising revenue. Liberal shows produce little or no revenue. If they can't sustain themselves in the free market, why should they be added to the rotation of other stations and thereby reduce revenue? There are liberal venues on the radio that do just fine. Ultimately everyone has the chioce not to listen to a station that plays shows you don't agree with. I choose not to listen to liberal radio, but I don't feel the need to silence it or regulate the station it is on. Less government, not more.