Sarah Palin vs. David Letterman

I am considered a feminist and hypersensitive when it comes to offensive comments. I do understand that we have a bias in the way we read “jokes”. That being said, I did not find anything insulting in the joke David Letterman made. I didn’t see it as being an attack on a 14 year old girl. I did see it as being an attack on Sarah Palin’s parenting skills. I did see it as being a commentary on Bristol Palin’s past history and her current mission to promote abstinence. Certain members of the Palin family are fair game because they are constantly throwing themselves in the limelight “promoting family values”. It is like Bill Clinton going around promoting fidelity right after he got caught red handed. There is nothing wrong with repenting on a bad decision; however must you shove your child in the limelight and call him a mistake? Okay you think young kids shouldn’t have sex, okay, now shut up and take care of your child. I would say the same thing to Bill Clinton… You want people to be faithful to their spouses, fine, now shut up and work on your marriage.
Are we really stupid enough to believe that Bristol would have promoted abstinence if she didn’t get pregnant? Would she go around saying “I had sex, but it wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, so please don’t do it?” I highly doubt it. Would Sarah Palin have cared about children with disabilities if her child hadn’t been born with Down Syndrome? Taking into consideration no prior mention of helping people with disabilities, I’d say she probably wouldn’t have cared much for them. She also was against funding children health insurance in Alaska and against the Community Choice Act; two pieces of legislation that could help people with disabilities. I think the way the Palin mothers use their children to further their “careers” is despicable. It is equivalent to saying, “look at my black coworker, this proves that I care about black people and am willing to work with them.,” or, “I got into a car accident while drinking and driving, so don’t drink.”

Sarah Palin’s response to the joke was a joke in itself. Sarah Palin states, "Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands -- that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'" You know what is really disgusting? Forcing rape victims to pay for their own rape kit, that is disgusting. Also, David wasn’t talking about rape; she made that connection on her own. Even many Palin supporters acknowledged that it wasn’t about her 14 year old daughter. So is it okay to insinuate that he is a pedophile just because she didn’t get the joke? And in response to his second apology, she thanked the US troops for protecting the first amendment (which was an out of the blue attempt to pander to the troops). If she cared about women and women in the military, why doesn’t she speak out for the many women in the military who have suffered discrimination and even rape by fellow soldiers and superior officers? She is an opportunistic hypocrite.

If David Letterman owes anyone an apology it would have to be to Alex Rodriguez (Joe pointed that out). Well now that David Letterman issued an apology, let’s hope he never mentions her name again. Many would think that he if ceases to mention her name again, that she has won; I see it more as a national victory. The less we hear about her the better.