Dave at Peace: The Rolling Stone Interview

In which way?
Well, I think in the beginning I felt like I had some sort of responsibility to attack everything he said and try to counter it with my own intelligence, but that reservoir is pretty shallow. So now I think, "Well, here's a guy who really is no different than Paris or Regis, so I'll just sit there and make fun of them." It doesn't make any difference what they're saying, I just make fun of them.

As much as you've made fun of the current White House occupants, it's obvious that as the Iraq War progressed, they've also made you angry. Not long ago, you wondered aloud if there was "any humanity" to Bush or Cheney.
Right. Yeah, that is [something] I wonder about. I don't know, you wonder how can they go to bed at night. We're talking about a lot of people who are dead. We all know that's the nature of war, but I don't know. It's very confusing to me, because obviously something needed to be done. I'm very ill-equipped to comment, but I do question the humanity of everyone involved.

You seemed to have supported the war at first, as did a great many people who wanted to feel like they were doing the right thing and supporting the country.
I think I'm no different than everyone else. I'm just a hothead reactionary and I wanted to see something done. The question that I like to ask people is, "What if Al Gore had been president? Who would we have attacked? And when? What mistakes would a Democratic president have made?"

Does it anger you a little more because some of these people have been on the air? Bush has been on the show, and McCain was on in 2001 linking the anthrax to Iraq. Does it feel personal to you?
Yeah, it does feel very personal to me, maybe more so than it should. When you sit down there together more than once or twice, you've created a camaraderie. I'm just waiting for a guy to explain to me how things are going to be OK. This is going to sound nuts, but the guy that I believe is Al Franken. I don't know why — believe me, I've asked myself this question, but when he talks and he says something, I believe him more than I believe anybody who currently holds a seat in the Senate. He may not be elected. Maybe it's because we're peers, we're the same age, we're in the same business, but I believe Al.

You've had fun with McCain on the show, as a guest and a subject. Is Obama harder as a comedic subject?
I've heard that, and maybe so. It's certainly easier to make fun of John McCain in the obvious sense: He's an old guy. Every time we have these jokes about him being old, I always think to myself, "This is not entirely fair." In terms of Barack Obama, I think you're right, I don't think people have a way to get in there. There's nothing automatically that you can go to.

We don't know as much about him at this point.
He's been on our show a couple of times, and he wore a suit the second time he was on, where I thought, "Holy cow, I'd like to have that suit." It was stunningly beautiful. So I'd vote for him on the strength of that suit.

Are you voting for Obama?
I can't tell you who I'm voting for. I don't know who I'm voting for.

The late-night landscape is moving around in a big way in the next year — probably the most since you moved over to CBS. On NBC, you have Conan O'Brien going from his 12:30 slot to take over The Tonight Show, with Jay Leno stepping aside, and it's not clear what he's gonna do, maybe a new show with another network. How closely are you following this?
Well, it's interesting. It was always hard to imagine what NBC was up to, facilitating Conan to 11:30 — what would become of Jay? I'm not quite sure why they would do that, so much so that one wonders if that's actually what's going to happen. I'm glad that I'm not involved directly, because after a while that can be wearying. It's nice not to have a dog in this fight.