LETTERMAN: Let's talk about Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska.

MCCAIN: Before we do that, can we get that map out again and that tour...

LETTERMAN: No, we're not going to get the map out...You can have that. You can put that on the Straight Talk Express.

MCCAIN: I'd like to have that as a souvenir.

LETTERMAN: So shortly after, I don't know...Labor Day, I guess it was…the announcement that you had selected a running mate and it was Sarah Palin. Now, I didn't know that Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska. I never heard of her. I mean, I knew Alaska was a state, and I knew they must have a governor. But I'd never heard of her.

MCCAIN: Who's the governor of Arizona?

LETTERMAN: I don't know.

MCCAIN: Well, I hope you get to know her. I hope she comes on this show.

LETTERMAN: What are the chances of that? Seriously?

MCCAIN: Actually, I think they're pretty good.

LETTERMAN: Really?

MCCAIN: Yeah, I will try...we've only got 19 more days but I would uh…she's campaigning very hard. But I'd like to tell you that I think she is a person who I think has ignited a lot of young people all over this country.

LETTERMAN: Certainly created a lot of attention that the campaigns had not had before. And the question is, if she had been a man, would you also have selected him as a man?

MCCAIN: Yes, because I believe that Sarah Palin is a reformer. She's the most popular governor in the United States of America. She gave her taxpayers back money. She negotiated a $40 billion natural gas pipeline deal and confronted the big oil companies when she did it. She's been a member of the PTA, the city council, the mayor and a governor. And I am very honored to know her and her family. She has – by the way, her husband, Todd, is a four-time champion of a race of 2000 miles across Alaska in the dead of winter. Amazing person. His grandmother is a native Alaskan. In one of his races, he broke his arm and continued the race for 250 more miles. It's just a wonderful family. And they have a very special child and I'm very proud of them. So I'm very proud to have Sarah with me and I think she has energized our ticket and energized a lot of Americans.

LETTERMAN: No question about that. But I'll tell you… I mean, was she your first choice?

MCCAIN: Absolutely.

LETTERMAN: And what is the process when it comes time to pick that position. How do you do that? Is it you and a committee? Is it just you going through your phonebook? I mean, honestly, I don't…how do you select a vice president? You knew about her. But the rest of America, saLETTERMANy, didn't really know about her.

MCCAIN: Well, we have this dart board... We had looked at and vetted, as you call, vetted, to get information on all the people that would be – and that's a pretty long list of people and then you narrow it down –

LETTERMAN: Had you spent time with her?

MCCAIN: A couple of times, I'd met with her. I didn't know her real well but I knew her reputation and I didn't know her well at all. I didn't know her well at all. I knew her reputation as a reformer. Running against a governor of her own party, an incumbent governor. She took the guy on after she believed that bad things were going on in Alaska. And she was right.

LETTERMAN: Now here's my point of view on this. And again, I really don't know anything. And I'm an independent. I have no party affiliation. When this happened, I thought to myself, wow, you know in my daily life – and anybody who's got kids, yourself, anybody – you try to take the best care of your children that you can for their future. Present and future. And I kind of felt like that's the responsibility to a huge extent of our administration. So the person, man or woman, who is in charge of that, has got to do the same. And I was just wondering if the thoughtfulness of that process included your selection of Vice President.

MCCAIN: Oh sure.

LETTERMAN: 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.

MCCAIN: 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.

LETTERMAN: I'm a big fan of Alaska.

MCCAIN: 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?

LETTERMAN: 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.

MCCAIN: 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.