Senator John McCain interrupted David Letterman's monologue, in which Letterman was making fun of McCain, on Monday night by taking a few punches at Letterman. After all the joking ended, McCain made some interesting comments about the election, Gov. Mike Huckabee and the war in Iraq.

During Letterman's nightly monologue, he makes fun of the day's news stories as well as poking fun at celebrities and politicians. On April fool's day, he joked about politicians, making fun of Senator Hillary Clinton, and quickly moving on to Senator John McCain.

"You know who I like is that John McCain," Letterman said. "You folks like John McCain? He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys. He looks like the guy who can't stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing. He looks like the guy who goes into town for turpentine. He looks like the guy who's always got wiry hair growing out of new places. He looks like the guy who points out the spots they missed at the carwash."

At that point in the monologue McCain "interrupted" Letterman with a few jokes of his own.

"You think that stuff's pretty funny don't you?" McCain jokingly asked. "Well you look like a guy whose laptop would be ceased by the authorities. You look a guy caught smuggling reptiles in his pants. You look like the guy who the neighbors later say; 'he mostly kept to himself.' You look like the night manager of a creepy motel. And you look like the guy who enjoys getting into a hot-tub and watching his swim trunks inflate."

I thought the first few jokes were funny, but after those first few lines, the staged humor quickly became boring. I would think that CBS could come up with better material when hosting the Republican presidential nominee on the show.

That being said, the appearance on the show and the teasing monologue were good moves for John McCain. It shows his ability to laugh at himself, hold his own with other influential people and makes him more relatable to the general public. Showings like this could help him heading into the general elections.

After the joking was done, McCain and Letterman discussed several serious topics. The first of which was  McCain's views on Huckabee staying in the race through the Texas primaries.

Letterman asked McCain what he thought Huckabee's goal was in the race and if Huckabee was campaigning for the 2012 election.

He's a good man; we're united now and we've got a major challenge in order to reenergize the Republican Party. Sen. John McCain, concerning Gov. Mike HuckabeeMcCain eloquently side-stepped the question by saying "I don't know. But, I will say this about Gov. Huckabee; I know you didn't take the time to watch all of these long debates. But the best line of all of these debates was when they asked Gov. Huckabee, they said 'What would Jesus do,' and he said 'Jesus would be smart enough not to run for public office.' I thought that was a pretty good line. He's a good man; we're united now and we've got a major challenge in order to reenergize the Republican Party."

McCain's reference to the Republican Party pushed Letterman to bring up those in the party, specifically Rush Limbaugh, who do not think McCain is conservative enough.

McCain responded by saying "I think maybe some people think that you ought to have exactly the same position they have on every issue. I'm proud to be a Republican in the Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan tradition. And I'm proud of that, and I'll present those credentials to the American people. You're just going to have people who disagree with you. I respect those disagreements."

In my opinion, McCain gave the best possible answer to both of Letterman's questions. He made a smart political move by side-stepping Letterman's question concerning Huckabee and showed support for the Arkansas governor, without saying he necessarily agreed with Huckabee's decision to stay in the race after he was mathematically eliminated

McCain's answer to the speculation of his being Republican or conservative enough was sheer brilliance. He did not try to appease the skeptics by saying he was ultra-conservative. Had he done so, he could have damaged his support from independent voters.

At the same time he did not harshly rebuke the argument. Instead he placed himself in the same category of the most popular presidents. By doing this he appealed to both the very conservative Republicans and perhaps the independents.

I'm proud to be a Republican in the Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan tradition. Sen. John McCain I thought the most important issue and biggest win for McCain came with Letterman's questions about the war in Iraq.

Letterman pointed out that more than 4,000 American soldiers have been killed since the Iraq war began, more than 30,000 wounded and it an unknown number of Iraqis killed. Letterman then asked McCain how many Iraqis he thought had been killed since the beginning of the war.

"I think it's hard to make these estimates, but it's in the hundreds of thousands obviously. And millions more fled the country," McCain said. "This has been a very, very tough and frustrating time."

Letterman also mentioned a comment McCain made at one of the debates concerning leaving troops in Iraq for 100 years.

McCain took the opportunity to clear up any misconceptions about that comment.

"After the Korean War we left our troops in South Korea...They provided stability in the region. But I'm not talking about having a war that lasts for a very long time...We just went through a very tough time here," McCain said. "We are paying a heavy price for four years of mishandling of this war by Rumsfeld and others."

McCain may have helped heal the political bruise of saying this could be a 100 year war. He has made his belief clear, that while we might have to have troops in Iraq for a long time to keep the region stable, he does not want a long and drawn out war. This comment, like others in his conversation with Letterman, may have appealed to independents who are most opposed to the war in Iraq.

McCain's ability to appeal to both the independents and the conservatives in his appearance on Letterman greatly helped his campaign, and his ability to joke and make fun of himself helped to show the American public that he is not just a senator; he is a human, just like the rest of us.