Brian Williams and David Letterman

(Screen grab/ CBS)

Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News, was David Letterman's guest on The Late Show Friday night.

Letterman, of course, talked about the vice presidential debate. He tore into Sarah Palin, as he had done in his monologue. He condescendingly referred to Gov. Palin as 'Miss Alaska.' It was meant to be a demeaning comment. It was unquestionably sexist.

Williams, representative of NBC News, left no doubt that he has no problem being openly hostile toward John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Williams' opening lines to Letterman were a direct shot at Sarah Palin. He mocked both Palin and John McCain. This from the NBC NEWS ANCHOR:

Transcript

DAVID LETTERMAN: Brian, how are ya?

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Well, I'm a maverick and I may not answer the questions tonight...

PAUL SHAFFER: Oh, he's a maverick!

WILLIAMS: ...the way you want to hear them, Dave.

(Applause)

LETTERMAN: Alright. Well, what else would you expect from a maverick? You raise a good point, right out of the box, in terms of debate protocol, debate etiquette. Can you do that? Can you refuse to answer a question and go off on your own tangent?

WILLIAMS: I guess she did. Um...and, and, you're, you're, you're normally not allowed to do that. And, and a lot of it's up to the moderator to kind of jab back. Uh, what we saw last night, she kept returning to energy, for example, her field of expertise in... in Alaska, even though they were on a separate topic. You see a lot of this in debates. She was the first one to state it, uh, out loud, that she was gonna go her own way.

So much for gravitas from the head of NBC News. What incredibly poor judgment!

We know that Williams is a liberal and is working to help elect Barack Obama. His performance on The Late Show, however, was so over the top that he can't claim to have even a semblance of objectivity when it comes to reporting on the 2008 presidential election.

Video here and here.

Transcript

LETTERMAN: Now how should a person feel, and politically I'm independent, and I can... I have the paperwork to verify this... But how should a person feel about John McCain in having made this choice? To me it seems like we're in such a mess now here at home and around the world that do we really want a beginner in the passenger's seat?

WILLIAMS: That's part of the judgment voters get to make. There are two ways of looking at this: Uh, it is refreshing to millions of Americans not to watch a debate like the one we had last night and not to see two older white males on the stage. This is new. This is different and it's late in 2008.

LETTERMAN: That's right. It has gotten everybody's interest focused on the campaign again.

WILLIAMS: The other way of looking at is it's September 11, 2001. The president is airborne. The Secret Service won't yet let him land 'cause we know that little about what has just happened to us. The vice president has taken hold of the machinery of government inside the White House. He is in the secure tank. That's also the job description we're talking about here, and that's part of this choice we get to make in 32 days.

LETTERMAN: Well see, there you go. That it's perfectly. You've coalesced everybody's concern, I think. You know, she's, you know: 'How's my hair?'

(Laughter, applause)

But, uh...That's unfair. I'm sorry.

Here's the other thing, and tell me, Brian, if I'm being petty about this. Because I like everybody, or like everybody in my business, I really was hoping for the proverbial train wreck. It couldn't get bad enough quick enough for me. And it, but it didn't. You know, it didn't. And I went home disappointed and crestfallen.

But then in thinking about it, uh, she slipped in late in the debate that, 'Well, there you go again. Don't... Say it ain't so, Joe.' And this is a reference to I believe Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919, 1918 Black Sox World Series scandal.

She knows... She... I'll bet you everything I own, she knows nothing about Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox. Now, at the beginning of the debate, she says, 'May I call you Joe?' So I'm thinking that was a cheesy, cheap set-up on her part to invoke his first name so later she could say, 'Oh, say ain't so, Joe.'

(Applause)

WILLIAMS: A lot of people thought...

(Cheers and applause)

LETTERMAN: Am I overreacting?

WILLIAMS: Well the other theory on that entry gambit when she came out and said 'Can I call you Joe?' was to get him off center. It was disarming. Because he clearly as a, as a creature of the Senate was prepared to call her 'governor' or 'Ms. Palin' all night. And so as he walked around to his podium he's thinking, 'Now why did she ask that?' And you've got to have your game face on.

But on all these things you're raising, her fans say,'Yeah, and your point is?'

They have the right, want the right, and require the right, to like her, and to, to want something different. She has, to the disgust of liberals, touched a nerve out there, starting with that convention speech.

She has had a rough patch with her two, so far TWO, network interviews.

LETTERMAN: Ha ha ha. It's your cable buddies. That's who took care of this for you.

WILLIAMS: 1-800-NBCNEWS. Uh, and uh, so Americans will make a separate judgment after last night.

LETTERMAN: Yeah, but you know, it's difficult because I don't want to appear that I'm ganging up on this candidate because she happens to be a woman and inexperienced... I was tired of her invoking, 'Oh, we're all mavericks.'

You're not. No, you're not. You're up there in Alaska where you can sneak around doing anything you want. Nobody cares.

(Applause)

LETTERMAN: Uh, but, he, I thought.... I know. That sounded harsh, didn't it? I didn't mean that. Really.

WILLIAMS: Little bit. A little bit.

LETTERMAN: But I was pleased with Joe Biden who was able to call her on John McCain's supposed role as a maverick.

WILLIAMS: And he did.

Williams repeatedly threw jibes at the McCain campaign for not agreeing to have Sarah Palin do an interview with NBC. He said he believes the campaign has a problem with MSNBC.

Gee, I wonder why!

Williams displayed the same sort of behavior that "ugly date" Letterman has been engaging in since he was supposedly "stood up" by John McCain.

Williams was petty and small and vindictive, just like Letterman.

Of course, Letterman is just a comedian and late night talk show host. He's not the leader, the personification of a HARD NEWS outlet.

That makes Williams' remarks all the more disturbing.

Certainly, Williams' dramatic description of 9/11 was meant to raise doubts about Sarah Palin's experience and instill fear in Americans. He cited the fact that she was a woman to be refreshing but questioned the wisdom of voting her into office. That's exactly how Letterman interpreted it and Williams didn't back off one bit.

I think it's appropriate to ask if we want a beginner like Barack Obama in the driver's seat. Sure, it's refreshing he's not an older white male, but does he have the experience to be president?

Williams didn't act like a journalist. He clearly was promoting Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and slamming Sarah Palin, and, to a lesser extent, John McCain.

Williams didn't attempt to counter Letterman's snide remarks and insults about Sarah Palin. He just smiled and chuckled and ran with Letterman's extremely biased comments.

It was very inappropriate from the anchor of NBC Nightly News. Exceedingly inappropriate.
__________________

Williams also referred to the "Eisenhower-Kennedy" election, TWICE.

Eisenhower didn't run against Kennedy. Though I'm guessing he meant to say the Nixon-Kennedy election, he didn't.

He said "Eisenhower-Kennedy."

That's a major gaffe or a sign of major stupidity.

Transcript

LETTERMAN: Is it fair to say that this is reminscent of the Bob Dole campaign?

WILLIAMS: It's fair to say this is reminscent of, maybe, Eisenhower-Kennedy -- where one side is running on a more traditional, and the other side would be the long ball to elect the young, vigorous of the two candidates, the more untested of the two candidates. I look at this a lot like Eisenhower-Kennedy.

_____________________

One more point about Williams--

When the first bailout bill failed in the House, Williams said that it was important to remember that it was a devastating defeat for President Bush.

I would be surprised if Williams said that the passage of the reworked bill was a triumph for the President.