ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson

Who would have thunk?

Indiana is in the political spotlight this election year!

Hope you got to see Indianapolis on ABC News World News with Charles Gibson. 

Indy played host to the ABC News Great American Battleground Bus Tour on Wednesday evening. The ABC anchor is touring several midwestern states that are considered battleground states. Charlie and his team are traveling Ohio, Indiana, WIsconsin and Iowa in a big ol’ bus. They are highlighting the issues and concerns of people throughout the midwest.

The Bus Tour rolled into town following Senator Barack Obama. Gibson interviewed the senator at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The interview aired on Wednesday night’s World News.

I got a chance to see the ABC News team in action Wednesday afternoon. And I was impressed. The ABC crew was set up on the St. Clair Street bridge on the northwest side of downtown Indianapolis. It was a spectacular view of the city…and the weather was perfect! (Thanks Paul Poteet and Kevin Gregory!)

Charlie meets Hoosier viewers

RTV 6 anchors Todd Wallace and Trisha Shepherd interviewed Mr. Gibson Wednesday afternoon. He rolled up in the ABC News bus and was a total pro. Charlie was open, engaging, personable, and very approachable.

You can click here to see some of the interview he did with Todd and Trisha. He shared some terrific insights to the current political climate and particularly Indiana’s role in the Presidential race. He also revealed that he pitched the idea of the tour based on his experiences traveling across the country in a bus during his tenure on ABC’s “Good Morning, America.”   

Charlie’s newscast aired live at 6:30pm and a crowd of dozens of Hoosiers stopped by to see him in action. Unfortunately, one viewer did try to disrupt the newscast, shouting a rant about 9/11 while Gibson was on the air, but the young man was quickly escorted away by security. 

Sharing stories from the Bus Tour

After the newscast wrapped, Gibson made it a point to thank all the people that had stopped by to see him. Charlie spent time talking to the crowd. He shared stories and viewers snapped pictures. 

But the tour had to move on. After Indy, the Great American Battleground Bus Tour was on the road for Wisconsin. And meeting more viewers.

I always liked Charlie. After seeing him in person, I have even more respect and admiration for him.

A good guy doing a good job.

...and the big ABC News Bus!

UPDATED INFO:

David Letterman’s stunt busting republican presidential candidate John McCain has folks inside CBS upset according to today’s New York Post.

Bigwigs are upset Letterman’s show tapped into the internal feed of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric as McCain was getting makeup applied before a live interview with Katie Couric. That feed was not supposed to be televised.

But they’re complaining off the record. (See what happened when you read the rest of this post.) According to the New York Post, CBS News feels that if they had used an internal network feed to break in on Letterman’s taping, heads would have rolled.

I don’t think anyone at CBS is going to tell Dave what he can’t do…he has a tendency to tell viewers about it. Dave’s not a fan of management…

***** 

In case you didn’t hear, John McCain stood up David Letterman. And Letterman busted him for it.

Here’s the background: Senator McCain was scheduled to appear on Letterman’s show on Wednesday night. Letterman recently had Senator Barack Obama on the program and “Late Show” recorded one of it’s highest ratings of the year. 

So Wednesday night, McCain had his chance.

But McCain called a couple hours prior to the early evening taping to personally tell Letterman he couldn’t do the show that night because he was “rushing back to Washington” due to the economic crisis.

Only problem is…he didn’t rush back to Washington. He rushed over to “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” to do a live interview on that newscast. And since Letterman is also produced for CBS, his crew punched up the live feed of McCain on Couric’s news set getting make-up applied and aired it with Letterman giving caustic commentary. That gave Letterman plenty to comment on…and made the talk show host even more sarcastic.

Think about it…Letterman’s show was good enough for Senator McCain to announce his run for the presidency several months ago.

Now…? 

Dave’s show can be incredibly silly. But I’ve seen the guy do some incredibily probing, straight-forward and very serious interviews, too. He’s no dummy. He’s well read and knowledgeable…how else can you do his style of comedy?  

Then on Thursday night, Letterman says McCain didn’t rush to Washington as he claimed he was going to do…he remained in New York through Thursday morning before going to Washington!

The TODAY SHOW even asked one of McCain’s spokespeople about the apparent snub and the spokesperson said the campaign didn’t think it appropriate for the Senator to appear on a comedy show.

That really set  the talk show host off.

Here’s a transcript of what he said on Thursday night’s show.

“I don’t know if you know about this or not, but last night….Here’s the deal - we do this little TV show every night right here on CBS. And what we do - you see these chairs right here? That’s because we like to have folks come out and visit. And one of the people who was going to visit with us last night was Senator John McCain.

“What a tremendous hero. What a great American John McCain is. Unquestionably, as President Clinton said earlier this week, gave almost everything but his life for this country. And a tremendous hero and a tremendous role model…and he was supposed to be on the show. So at the last minute he calls up and says, “Uh…I can’t make it.” And I said, “What is the problem?” And he said, “Well, the economy. The economy is about to crater.”
***
So I’m scared. I’m starting to tremble a little bit because he said, “I’ve got to race back to D.C.” And I thought, holy gosh… And I hung up the phone and I said to the staff that had gathered at my feet - waiting for words of reassurance from me…OK, everything’s fine. Don’t worry about it. The Senator is on his way back to D.C. So not only did he not go back right away, he stopped by to see Katie Couric on his way out. And then ok, we looked at it and we said, “OK, I understand that. That’s news and this is nonsense.”

But then after Katie Couric, wham-o, right to the airport? …No. No. No. We found out today that he didn’t really leave until this morning. [Boos from the audience.]

Thank you very much, Ladies and Gentlemen. So what we learned today is that the economy held on long enough - just barely held on long enough for him to get back there.

“Whereas, you can see, 24 hours ago, I felt like a patriot. I felt like I was helping out. I felt like I was doing my part. Part of the cause. Fighting the fight. Not part of the problem, I was part of the solution. I was going to help in my own little way get this economy out of the crater. And now I’m just feeling like an ugly date. That’s what I feel like. I feel like an ugly date. I feel used. I feel cheap. I feel sullied. I feel cratered…”

Is it just Dave being cranky? He’s famous for making issues out of everything. (Remember the years long “feud” between Letterman and Oprah?)

Or by busting a presidential candidate in a lie is Letterman going to sway a very, very close election?

There’s nothing like a talk show host scorned.

Especially one that is one of the nation’s premiere political satirists that just so happens to have a searing monologue every night at 11:35pm.