John McCain Sets Pow-Wow with David Letterman

By Daniel Fienberg, Zap2It.com | October 13, 2008

John McCain

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Republican Presidential candidate will make nice with Letterman

Less than a month after abruptly canceling on the late night host, Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain is ready to make nice with David Letterman.

McCain will visit "Late Show with David Letterman" on Thursday, Oct. 16. He'll be joined by musical guest Ne-Yo, who hasn't been endorsed by either major political party.

Expect plenty of apologies from the Arizona Senator, who has become a Letterman whipping boy since bailing on a Sept. 24 appearance.

McCain and Letterman had previously had a very friendly relationship. McCain has made a dozen previous appearances with Letterman, even using the CBS show as a platform to informally launch his presidential campaign.

At the time of his scheduled September appearance, McCain told Letterman that he was rushing back to Washington to deal with the economic crisis -- you may have heard something about it -- only to stop for an on-air chat with Katie Couric on his way out.

Letterman wasn't happy.

"I took a phone call from John McCain –- a lot of senators don't call me –- and so I felt like OK, as part of the national good, I understand and I said good luck and thank you for being attentive to the cause," Letterman said on-air at the time. "And he said maybe next time I'll come in and I'll bring Sarah Palin. And I said, fine, whatever you need to do, that's just fine. And he said, yeah, we're going to go save the country. And then it's like we caught him getting a manicure or something!"

He added, "This doesn't smell right. This just doesn't smell right. Because this is not the way a tested hero behaves. I think someone's put something in his Metamucil."

The new sit-down between McCain and Letterman will take place one day after the final presidential debate between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, which ought to give the two men something to talk about after the mea culpa-ing is through.