Clinton Camp Chides NBC

John McCain traded running-mate suggestions with host Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." (By Jeff Chiu -- Associated Press)

"You heard it here first: Dwight Schrute," McCain declared.

In response, Stewart offered a possible alternative for McCain's ticket, albeit not one from McCain's party. "If you chose Senator Hillary Clinton, you would win this election," the host said. "Don't you think that's a great idea?"

"That's one I've never contemplated," McCain replied, demurring when Stewart returned to the issue.

Stewart also pressed the presumptive Republican nominee on the McCain campaign's suggestion in a fundraising letter that the radical Islamist movement Hamas had endorsed Obama. McCain defended tying Obama to Hamas, saying, "The spokesperson said that."

"And you take Hamas at their word," Stewart observed dryly.

McCain passed on an opportunity to repudiate the president, and, for the most part, Stewart -- who had earlier skewered the Democrats' "long, flat, seemingly endless Bataan Death March to the White House" -- took it easy on McCain, joking about the code name the Secret Service must use for him and a fortune-cookie-like phrase from his stump speech.

-- Juliet Eilperin