In an odd turn of events, the John McCain campaign chose to fib and cancel a David Letterman appearance and appear on the Evening News with Katie Cuoric instead. Keith Olbermann filled the gap. McCain said he had to fly back to D.C. to handle the financial crisis and

Once the darling of late night talk shows, this maneuver appears to be plain bad strategy. If someone in his press office chose to lie, it smacks of desperation. Letterman is as much of a platform for serious issues as any news program in time of crisis. Attacking the mainstream media is an effective way to energize the conservative base--as the McCain camp did yesterday against the New York Times--but this is different. The feisty John McCain of old would've taken the 10 minutes to sit down with Dave and hash it out.

The Washington Independent brilliantly uses Lyndon Johnson's response to Walter Cronkite during the Tet Offensive in comparison (40 years ago this month), ""If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

Is this McCain's Fed Offensive? We'll know in the next few weeks.