Sarah Palin says Letterman owes women an apology

Saturday 13th June, 06:16 AM JST

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tkoind2 at 03:26 PM JST - 18th June

Palin's daugher was just a means of going after Palin. That is pretty clear.

no one deserves to be a target of humor. But being a public figure puts you and your loved ones out there. We see this every day with celebrities. It is a reality public figures have to accept or give up being a public figure.

As long as you know the truth then grow a strong skin and carry on.
inkjet at 03:43 PM JST - 18th June

But being a public figure puts you and your loved ones out there. We see this every day with celebrities.

really? can we have an example?
sailwind at 04:14 PM JST - 18th June

As long as you know the truth then grow a strong skin and carry on.

They seem to grown a pretty strong skin in putting Letterman's put his money where his mouth is. He groveled pretty good to them in his apology the other night. They also have something you seem to be missing in getting your digs in on them. They were gracious enough to accept his apology and that shows not a strong skin but also real character and class from that "Hick Clan" in Alaska.
LFRAgain at 04:29 PM JST - 18th June

"really? can we have an example?"

Bill Clinton, Paris Hilton, former Senator Larry Craig, Britney Spears.

That's just the 10-second list.
LFRAgain at 04:33 PM JST - 18th June

Sailwind,

"Sounds like a rape suspects defense.....Well Bristol asked for it by her questionable behavior."

I'm heartened here. You've finally let go of the insistence that Letterman was talking about Willow, and finally accepted that, as he maintained all along, it was a comment about Bristol.

Now if you'll take that extra step towards realizing that public figures like Bristol are always going to be targets of comedians, pundits, and critics, then maybe we’ll get somewhere. Bristol doesn’t get a free pass just because she’s the daughter of Saint Palin, any more than Meghan McCain is somehow magically protected from being called a “fat pig,” “Cellulite,” or a “slut” by some of the finer voices in the Republican blogosphere, like Dan Riehl, just by being John McCain’s little girl.

Where was the “good, decent American” outrage when Meghan, having the audacity to criticize members of her own party, was being raked over the coals for things so sexist and irrelevant as her dress size and her sexual proclivities? The protests were nowhere to be seen or heard.

Now let’s check the scorecard:

Bristol Palin got knocked up (yes, that’s what we call it in colloquial terms, for better or worse, when a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock - personally, I hate the term), the entire nation became aware of it as Palin’s candidacy as VP became public knowledge, and she was later skewered in a tasteless but no less relevant joke on national television about the possibility that she might very well exercise the same lack of good judgment by having a tryst with Yankess badboy Alex Rodriguez. No matter how much you try to twist Letterman's words, it wasn’t a suggestion that 33-year old men should make light of having sex with women 15 years their younger. it was a dig on Bristol's demonstrated poor judgement. Was it nice? Not even a little. Was it so outrageous as to spark this feeding frenzy on the Right? Hardly.

McCain, on the other hand did what, exactly? Oh, yeah. She spoke her mind. She criticized the Republican Party for essentially guaranteeing the 2008 election defeat by systematically ostracizing anyone and everyone who didn’t subscribe to their conservative, “I’m a white, wealthy, Christian a-hole and proud of it” platform. And she was skewered for it – by members of her own party, no less.

But no, no. We can’t address that. No, according to you, this is a mean-spirited attack on the daughter of Saint Palin based solely on politics, and Republicans would never say such things about their adversaries (psst! To keep your argument intact, we’ll just not mention how the “respectful” Republican Party talks about Nancy Pelosi. No need to thank me, pal. Gratis.).

Wait a sec. Wasn’t it you who was admonishing me earlier for making this political?

Yeah, Sailwind. Keep telling yourself whatever lets you sleep at night.
sailwind at 04:39 PM JST - 18th June

LFR

You should have passed your "defense" of this to Letterman.

He already came to the right conclusion about it two days ago. You missed that bus I take it?

It was “a coarse joke,” “a bad joke,” Letterman told viewers. “But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18.”

“**The joke, really, in and of itself, can’t be defended,” **he declared.

Might read that last sentence a couple of more times before you opine again on this.
sailwind at 04:45 PM JST - 18th June

I also think he was quite sincere in that statement and apology and wouldn't really want to see good liberal folks like you continue to do so I might add.

But do carry on in getting your slams in on me for agreeing with Letterman that this can't be defended.
tkoind2 at 05:51 PM JST - 18th June

I stand by my position that being a public figure puts you and your loved ones in harms way for jokes. Period. Don't like it, don't be a public figure. Period.

Free speech is free speech, even if we don't like the content.
LFRAgain at 06:47 PM JST - 18th June

Sailwind,

I haven't said otherwise. It was a bad joke. It was tasteless. It was tacky. It was insulting. And it's no different than the kind of garbage that's slung on a daily basis by political pundits on both sides, hence my refusal to grab a torch and pitchfork and hop on the bandwagon with you.

You got suckered, Sailwind, purely and simply. This was a non-story relative to the bile we see everyday in the media, until Palin supporters in the blogosphere grabbed a hold of it, dressed it up a lot as something it wasn't (e.g., "David Letterman thinks the statutory rape of a 14-year old is funny"), and ran with it. It morphed as it went, going from, "Oh, David doesn't think raping a 14-year-old is funny, but raping and 18-year-old is," to "David's a pedophile. He should be kept away form his own son." It was ridiculous, it was sad, and it was entirely predictable, the downward spiral. And you gleefully went along for the ride. Honestly, I expected better from you.
LFRAgain at 06:50 PM JST - 18th June

BTW, where exactly have I "slammed" you? I disagree with you. I think you're working very hard to justify this in your mind as something more than it is. And I think you're being more than a little self-righteous. Sure, we all have at one poitn or another. But my calling you on it isn't "slamming" you by any stretch.
Beerplease at 08:09 PM JST - 18th June

I think Palin ought to apologize to Dave for slandering him.
sailwind at 10:19 PM JST - 18th June

LRA,

I respect every post on this thread. You are a person who I have come to admire the past four years on J.T.

We have tangled on many topics, we also have agreed on many topics. When the discussion is about history, man I bow my head to you.

But on this one...... I can't fathom how going after a persons daughter is cool. I draw the line at that. That is who sailwind is....I hope that resonates with you, if not maybe Liberals and Conservatives really never will get along.
inkjet at 07:25 AM JST - 19th June

tkoind2

I stand by my position that being a public figure puts you and your loved ones in harms way for jokes.

ok you've restated your feeling. but you claim it happens everyday. coming up with one example shouldn't be too difficult.

by the way olive garden just pulled their ads for the year. they are allowed to do that, right?
LFRAgain at 08:48 AM JST - 19th June

Sailwind,

Thank you for your kind words. I'd be lying if I said the admiration wasn't mutual. Which is why I have a hard time understanding why you in particular are getting so worked up over something I truly see as an artificially tweaked manipulation and distraction. It seems just too obvious to me that the anger is more because it was Palin's daughter than if it had been anyone else.

Across the board there are instances where no one said a peep when young women (they're all someone's daughter, after all) were raked over the coals for whatever reason due to their political visibility. Meghan McCain is just one recent example. Nancy Pelosi is another. Monica Lewinsky is yet another. And with that last example, I can virtually guarantee you that there are posters here thinking, "Ah, well, Monica. Now calling HER a slut . . . Yeah, that's understandable." And I want to ask why.

No one seems willing or able to explain the different standards of measure, but it seems the single overriding factor in determining how angry everyone is or should be here (as I'm constantly being reminded) is that Bristol is Sarah's daughter. And I'm thinking, "So what? What makes her so damned special that her bad behavior can't be satirized and exploited, while others can be --- with relish?"

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this. I agree Letterman should have apologized. He went too far with the joke and admitting it was the right thing to do. And as far as I've seen, Palin is letting it end at that. But there're people out there who still want Letterman's head for this. And a large number of them are major Limbaugh fans. That being the case, I'm not going to budge on this until the Right does a little house cleaning of their own and applies equally their standards of so-called “decency.”
greensatindress at 09:59 AM JST - 19th June

Dave L. is laughing all the way to the bank while the ratings sore.

As for S. Palin, I have zero interest in her but I will say, I love the way she wears her hair. I wish more women wore their hair up like that. She's quite attractive, despite everything else.