Letterman and Palin: An American Anti-Love Story

So O'Reilly can go on for months or ears about "doctor death" or "Tiller the baby killer" and that's just protected speech, but Letterman making a joke about Palin's unwed, teenage daughter who WAS actually knocked up, and THAT is out of bounds????

in one case, someone is incited to violence.

in the other someone's feelings might be hurt.


so?


Imagine for a moment if one of President Obama's or Joe Biden's children was a pregnant unmarried teenager...
what WOULD you have been hearing all over talk radio?

Polite hands off treatment?
yeah right.

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It's probably tough enough to be Palin's kid, or Biden's kid or even Barack's kid.

In the spirit of my idol, hurricane hugo, both parties ought to STFU!

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Sarah Palin must know this. She can't possibly be as stupid as she comes off in every single public forum she has ever participated in - no one's that dumb!


She gives new meaning to the word dip shit.

Awash with fear, mostly hatemongers, entirely out of ideas and worthy candidates, living in the past or la la land, the republican party is dead.

Does anyone think that most Americans will elect a president that believes the earth is 6000 years old and God is tricking us with dino bones? Really? I don't think so.

Hold on! Look out! Here comes health care!

BTW, for my Alternet friends, I was rather badly injured in an accident, typing with one finger, fractured right arm for one thing, cast from hand to shoulder for four weeks.

I am keeping up with current events with Chris, Keith and Rachel God bless them. Keith O. has a fun time with Sister Sarah. She is an albatross for republicans. Very badly selected in haste she must have felt like a dream come true at first,I bet many wish a hole would open up and swallow her.

FYI, last week I received a LOOOONNNGGGGG frigging letter from the honorable former speacker Newt. Nine pages about finding God in America, send him $35 and I receive a video about it. I don't know how I ended up on his mailing list, weird.

Don Hazen I love you and Alternet, I will send a contribution ASAP.

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say Howard Stern or Bill O had made those comments about Obama's daughter, in the context of a ":joke".

I suspect the outrage on the left would be much like it is on the right!

To even think that this was going to be an edgy "joke" was ridiculous. Letterman knew that also. I doubt any Obama girl jokes will be forthcoming.

Letterman should be given the same treatment Imus received.

As for Palins comment, why would a mother want to let her daughter near an old man advocating the rape of a girl, in a prime time joke. Letterman might want to stay as far away from Plain's husband as he possibly can!

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Those bright orange sandals with the matching pedicure the other day almost made me want to cry. This grown woman has a son serving in Iraq. I wonder what the guys have to say about her? I have never known a woman who didn't give a thought to the way she was perceived by her children and their friends. "Judge not..."? Bull! I'd move to another part of the world if my mother had been like Palin. She is constantly posing and looking sexy. But she has to pick a strategy that works. Being crazy isn't the way to go. I think she missed alot of fun during her younger life and she's playing catch-up. ANNA

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in front of cameras and on any political stage she can climb upon. She behaves as if her children are political props. It was Sarah who started this whole ball rolling... no doubt, trying to look the part of a "regular mom." She's exploiting her own children.

Letterman apologized and said himself that he was out of line. But that isn't good enough for Sarah. After all, she was able to parlay the whole thing into personal appearances on numerous television shows for almost a week! Free publicity!

She's absolutely despicable and deserves whatever derision is directed at her. Shame on her for putting her political career before her own children!

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The media masters are looking for reasons to bring Palin on. She's a walking disaster, a sound bite whose only purpose is to generate more sound bites; she is the nuclear core of the noise machine. She's the ultimate troll of real-space; Distraction incarnate.

I've lost count of the number of times she's been paraded out to end the rational debate and replace it with pointing of fingers and yelling. It's what she's best at, and as long as we keep looking and opening links that say "Palin does x stupid thing", we'll keep seeing it.

Do you remember when Obama was elected and we sat here and talked about what change would look like? Well, where did that go? Why have we returned to the inanity of personal attacks against irrelevant personalities, shamefully descending from the genuine and progressive debates we were having in November and December? How are we going to move our progressive agenda forward, now that we are clearly not going to be championed by President Obama? That needs our focus, not this bullshit that doesn't even deserve coverage on TMZ.

If you want to move on, DO IT! Don't read articles about Sarah Palin. Don't comment on articles about Sarah Palin. Discourage other commentators from discussing Sarah Palin. Republicans are going extinct, and the only way they can be a threat is if we give them credibility by covering them in the media we consume.

It's frankly absurd that this topic gets the coverage it does. Shame on us.

Spot out.

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enjoyed it and your name in lights again!!!

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Yes, Palin is a wonderful gift to the progressive community and Democrats; and indeed she seems to keep giving. Bless her heart.

But wait, didn't the Bible tell us that fecundity was a good deal? And isn't that what the Palin gals are all about? Only joking.

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Reminds me of the uproar about Don Imus' comment. It's all planned and distraction. Makes for better ratings and cheap journalism.

While we were talking about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica they passed NAFTA. What are they doing now? Maybe we should better ask what are they NOT doing?

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"Dave and his writers made their reputation for their wit and sophistication. They can do better than that."

Mr. Letterman admits wholeheartedly that his jokes are tasteless and stupid. He also admits that he and his writers will push the envelope almost over the line to get a laugh. He admits he's been doing this shit for 30 years. It's what they do.

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...is that the joke is about A-Rod, not about the daughter.

"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game: During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The right making hay out of nothing reminds me of Rumplestiltskin. They have even stomped their collective little feet and are splitting in two!

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Since you added Malkin's Time's response I wanted to ask Michelle, what did you have to say about Imus's racist comment? How about Rush calling 13 year-old Chelsea Clinton a dog? Maybe you were still in grade school at that time. Maybe you're still in grade school now? You do display that mind-set. Apparently that works fine for your readers whose intellect is about one grade-level below yours. Any troll want to defend Malkin? Then link to this Alternet goody and tell me why all your guys' comments are not as or more offensive that Letterman's.

The "joke" [Letterman's] was in poor taste and hence not funny. It's obvious to any thinking person that Letterman was referring to Bristol since she had a very public out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy.

But alas, the smear machine has managed to garner the false outrage of "the base". So will someone on the right tell me why if Letterman's bad joke was so horrible (even if he was referring to Willow), why is this response from Palin's camp acceptable?

Meghan Stapleton, Palin spokesperson:

"The Palins have no intention of providing a rating's boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."

Seriously? She get's a free pass on calling Letterman a pedophile? Obviously so. Where's the outrage? Most of us lefties really don't care about either side of this fake fight, but Stapelton's comment was clearly not intended to be funny (i.e. not a joke). But whatever; Dave's a big boy.

Why are some right-wingers are so self-righteous they don't even recognize their own blatant hypocrisy? Can one of you point to your outrage when Rush Limbaugh called 13 year-old Chelsea Clinton the White House dog?

Get a life you sycophantic babies!

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Tom- Good piece, as usual.
How refreshing to see your work here and not have to scroll down the list of comments to find your input. *_*
I do have to say- A.Rod was the brunt of this, imo, cruel joke.
I do believe the writers and DL were very much aware of the sensation this would cause-
they are as sick and tired of the Fox crowd,etal, as so many of us- I'm sure it was tried as a "taste of their own medicine" -, most of the rest of us "elite" are too Civil. Poor Joan Walsh- could not heave the necessary dung at O'Reilly- it just isn't in her.

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