McCAIN TO LETTERMAN: BY THE WAY, I'M A POW WITH A SON IN A WAR ZONE. DID YOU KNOW THAT?

You gotta give the guy credit -- he gets straight to the bullet points. From the New York Times account of McCain's appearance on tonight's David Letterman Show, which was taped a little while ago (emphasis added):

...Mr. McCain walked on the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, the site of "The Late Show," in New York around 5:20 p.m. Eastern. Mr. Letterman immediately asked: "Can you stay?"

"Yes, sir," Mr. McCain said, and adjusted himself in the chair. He quickly added: "Depends on how bad it gets."

Then Mr. McCain jokingly said that he asked his son in the Marine Corps to FedEx his flak jacket in preparation for the visit.

Mr. Letterman got right to it: "So what happened?"

Mr. McCain answered: "I screwed up."

After the audience applauded, he continued, "Look at all the conversation I gave you. Including having Mr. Olbermann on."

(The MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann filled in for Mr. McCain at the last minute on Sept. 24. On Thursday, Mr. Olbermann was shown standing backstage, ready to appear again if the candidate had not arrived.)

Mr. McCain added: "I haven’t had so much fun since my last interrogation." ...

Imagine if he weren't so darn reluctant to mention these things.

Oh -- he got in a Joe the Plumber reference, too. Imagine my surprise.