Transcript of of last night's Letterman/McCain

DL: I mean, if you are unable to fulfill your office, we get a 9/11 attack, Sarah Palin is the president who leads us through that.

JM: Sure. She’s been the governor of a state with 24,000 employees. She’s…I mean, maybe you don’t like Alaska. But the point is, it’s the biggest state we have. And I’m sure they’d welcome you there.

DL: I’m a big fan of Alaska.

JM: Look, in all due respect, one of the people I admire most was an obscure governor of a southern state called Arkansas. And he turned out to be a fairly successful president. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a cowboy – no experience in international affairs. Look, I think she has shown leadership. I think she’s shown executive ability. And I think she has shown a degree of reform that we need – does anyone think we don’t need to clean up the mess in Washington?

DL: Let me just get back to my question. Well, I mean, either you’re right or you’re wrong. You know what you’re talking about or you don’t know what you’re talking about. But I’m just telling you from my perspective that I thought, Oh, oh my God. I’m sure she’s a lovely woman. I’m sure she’s done a great job in Alaska. But in terms – this country. I’m 61. I’ve never seen it in this big a mess. I’ve seen economic problems. I’ve seen war. I’ve never seen a combination of things quite like this. I’ve never seen the free fall diminishment of the impression of the United States around the country. I’ve never seen anything like this. I have a four-year-old son. I wonder what the hell, is it going to be 160 twenty years from now on his birthday? So I’m thinking, alright, this is a pretty important job.

JM: But with all due respect, she’s had the leadership experience that’s necessary to run bureaucracies, to reform…And because she was not known inside the Georgetown cocktail circuit, doesn’t matter to me.

DL: Let me ask you a question. In your guts, in your stomach – you’re a smart, tough, savvy guy –

JM: Thank you. That’ll be a commercial, coming to you soon.

DL: If I were to run upstairs, wake you up in the middle of the night, and say, “John, is Sarah Palin really the woman to lead us through the next four, eight years? Through the next 9/11 attack?”

JM: Absolutely. She has inspired Americans. That’s the thing we need. We need inspiration now. We need courage. We need to know that we’re the greatest nation in the world. And we can come through this. I agree with your assessment of the way the world and this country is. And they need somebody they say – this, this is a person who is an inspiration to us. This is a person who has done so many things that are very unusual. So all I can tell you is that if you are looking for somebody, someone who is in the old boy network of Washington, many of whom have gotten us into this ditch to start with, then that’s fine. But I think America is crying out for change. And she represents the kind of change that we need. Have we pretty well exhausted this topic?

DL: No, no. I’m just getting started! Now she’s also, she’s the one, I think who says that Barack Obama pals around with terrorists. Has she in fact said that at rallies?

JM: I don’t…yes. And he did. And refused to acknowledge the fact.

DL: Who did he pal around with?

JM: William Ayers who said on 9/11 that he wished that he’d bombed more. OK? His wife was on the Top 10 of FBI’s Most Wanted.

DL: But this all took place…when he was active, Barack Obama was eight years old.

JM: Eight years old. And Mr. Ayers in 2001, September 11, 2001, said, “I wished I had bombed more.” It’s an unrep—

DL: But what is that relationship?

JM: It’s all we need to know. Senator Clinton said, “We need to know about the relationship.” First he said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. And so it’s a matter of trusting the word of someone.

DL: I know. I know.

JM: That’s all.

DL: But you will also admit that we cannot really control who we interact with in our lives 100%.

JM: How long we interact with them and how we interact with them…But the point in this campaign is the economy, the economy and the economy.

DL: But did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?

JM: I met him, you know, I mean…

DL: Didn’t you attend a fund raiser at his house?

JM: Gordon Liddy’s?

*** commercial break ***