Did anyone see Bill Clinton's appearance on David Letterman last night? It was 95% a political push for Kerry, so I'm posting this under P&R. Anyway, I found it very interesting, and it was a long interview; three segements of the program.

Clinton reiterated several items from his convention speech; i.e. Bush is going to eliminate federal funding for 88,000 cops, and he's going to let the automatic weapons ban expire. He said he thinks the terror warning issued this week was not political, echoing what Kerry said, but lamented that the laptop, which was discovered by Pakistanis, should have been found much earlier by the U.S., except that many thousands of troops who should be on the terror front in Afghanistan are instead in Iraq.

Letterman was very respectful and let Clinton speak his piece without interrupting. I suppose he'll give equal time to the other party, but it seemed obvious that Letterman wanted Clinton to get his message out.

Clinton looked physically fit, but his face looked old. His left eye kept almost closing when he talked.

I was kinda surprised that Letterman asked so many political questions. Usually when there are politicians on the show, he usually saves a political question for last and talk about something else.

I think Laura Bush has done it, but George Bush always refused to do it (in 2000 they invited both Gore and Bush to be on the show). It'll be interesting to see if they try to get Kerry.


I'm not sure if this is mentioned anywhere else, but I believe he also accepted the invitation to be on Saturday Night Live this fall. It'll be interesting to see when they have him on there.

[ August 04, 2004, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: illini n milwaukee ]

Maybe Hillary had bitchslapped him.

Clinton was very relaxed and impressive (as usual) but appeared to be tired and lacking in sleep -- at least based upon the sizeable bags that were noticeable under both eyes....I, too, was surprised that Letterman focused virtually the entire interview on key political issues....Dave is normally not known for "grilling" his guests with hard-hitting questions but he certainly allowed Bill to get his points across quite eloquently....I particularly liked the fact that Clinton emphasized the difference in the size of our troops in Afghanistan vs Iraq and how he (along with Kerry) would have concentrated the attack more heavily in Afghanistan from day one in an attempt to track down and punish the TRUE perpetrators of 9/11, not Hussein (as evil as Saddam may be, which Bill pointed out).

It will be interesting to see if Bush or Kerry appear on any of these late night talk shows between now and Nov. 2nd....I recall that Kerry was on with Jay Leno last winter when his campaign appeared to be going down in flames -- oh how times have changed.

~Joe

I don't see why W doesn't go on Letterman and/or Leno. They're unlikely to press him as far as they would either an ex-president or a candidate. I mean, is Letterman really going to ask him tough questions?

We can't even get the legitimate U.S. press corps to do that; it takes journalists from Ireland and other parts of the world to conduct basic follow-up queries on W's statements.

So I can't see why he wouldn't go on all of these shows. He could tell a few jokes, make light fun of himself, and disarm his critics. And if they get too critical, he always has John Ashcroft and FCC waiting in the wings....

Well in defense of the press to some degree, Bush almost always requires pre-submitted questions (which I would assume have to be 'approved') and he doesn't allow follow ups.

It's an absolute joke.


Interestingly, I heard quickly the other day that Kerry stated he'll have open press conferences at least once a month.

Agreed. Recall the excellent job Bob Dole did when there. Would he were "there" during the '96 campaign! frown

Clinton is doing a book signing in Toronto tomorrow. I was thinking of going, but there are all sorts of security requirements, plus they say they are handing out wristbands starting at 6am(!) for an 11am appearance. And I don't really want to buy the book anyways, I just wanted to see the spectacle. But it looks like there won't be much gawking opportunity.

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On the 11pm news they showed people lining up already for tomorrow's book signing (they say they will hand out 1,000 wristbands at 6am).

[ August 04, 2004, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]