Letterman Apologizes...It's Time To Move On

The transcript of tonights show has been released. Part of it is here

"And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer 'Newshour' - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, 'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent.' It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke. And I'm certainly - " (audience applause) "- thank you. Well, my responsibility - I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood." (audience applauds) "Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much." (audience applause)

-A couple points on this. From the beginning I have not called on David Letterman to be fired. In fact, I don't think he should be fired. I think we start to get into a bad area when we call for people to be fired for something that offends us. Who ends up being the judge on what is offensive? I think simply changing the channel and tanking the persons ratings will be the ultimate penalty.

- Palins response was absolutely right and is the same response almost every parent in America would give if their child was the subject of this controversy. In fact I think most people wouldn't mind Todd Palin getting a hold of Letterman for a little while. I know I wouldn't fault him for that.

- Moving on from this after the apology makes this a clear win for Palin.

- Continuing to make this an issue after the apology would be a mistake. Whether you think the apology is sincere or not (part of the reason why I dont care for forced apologies in the first place) most people will want to move on. With the situation in Iran, nukes in North Korea, and health care being forced down our throat, people will start to get tired of this issue. They'll say we have bigger issues on our plate and will start to make Letterman the victim. The media is begging to play that angle of the story. They also want to make Palin a tabloid politician, focusing on this rather than her always common sense critique of the Obama administrations disasterous policies.

-It will also hide the accomplishments of Palin. She had a major victory last week with the pipeline. She talked about it in each interview she had, yet the stories that made it into the paper and the cable shows had to do with the questions she was asked about Letterman.

-In the end, moving on from this now helps Palin. She stood up for her family, destroyed Letterman, and exposed him to most of the country. All clear thinking Americans had her back in this case.

-While we're on the subject of Gov. Palin dont forget that there is a webathon this week to retire the debt that Palin has accumulated due to frivolous ethics complaints. Click on the Alaska logo on the right to donate.