Letterman, Palin & Her Continued Parade

Ah, Sarah Palin. The gift that keeps on giving...or the one that just won't go away? In her current "feud" with David Letterman, she is back in the spotlight right where she likes to be.

When the campaign was over, many of us were really hoping that Palin would just slink into the vast wilderness of Alaska as a not-so-happy loser. She would change back into her hunting clothes, make that weird stew of hers, and shut up. We should have known she liked the spotlight too much.

So David Letterman made an inappropriate comment. The joke was made and then he apologized. He has made his career on making inappropriate jokes. If he was worried about offending people all the time, he wouldn't be a comedian. Like Saturday Night Live, he targets everyone.

I am a feminist. Always have been. Most women I know are. Women don't like sexist comments. But, come on. This was funny. It WASN'T about a fourteen year old girl (the Palins made it about that), and the simple apology should have ended it. But, in true Sarah fashion she has turned it into some windstorm when it was never anything but a joke.

In reality, it was a joke that was advertised for months when a mother paraded her unmarried, pregnant daughter around the stage throughout the entire campaign, along with her then boyfriend, while they preached abstinence. They went everywhere with her. This was along with her other children who were pulled out of school and used like props throughout the campaign. So now she is complaining that they are in the limelight? Ms. Palin needs to ask herself - WHO PUT THEM THERE? Or as Margaret Carlson states, so much better:

"Letterman's joke was indeed tasteless—he even owed A-Rod an apology. But I doubt there was another soul in the world who didn’t understand the joke to be about the older Palin daughter, who lapped Jamie Lynn Spears as the most famous pregnant teen in the world once she was trotted out at the Republican National Convention in August. Not that Bristol should have been left at home in the dark, but if you want a “zone of privacy” around your daughter, do you have her appear on stage with her then-fiancé hinting at prospects of a White House wedding waving to the crowd like Charles and Diana of the Klondike?

And exploiting Bristol as an unwed teen mother didn’t stop with the campaign. Back in Wasilla, where Bristol could have been sheltered and given space to rebuild her life, the Palins arranged to send her out like a vaudeville act, traveling the country to talk about teenage pregnancy under the sponsorship of Candie’s, a clothing company known for sexually provocative outfits for tweens.

The Bristol “do as I say tour” had a rocky start once she admitted that abstinence was not “realistic”—apparently she was against it before she was for it. Note to mom: When you become the ambivalent poster child for unwed motherhood, you attract off-color jokes."

The truth is, the people who are really exploiting their children is, once again, Todd and Sarah Palin. Accept Letterman's apology for being inappropriate and move on - and quit blowing things way out of proportion. And while you're at it, Ms. Palin, quit talking about President Obama with disrespectful comments like:

"It’s the double standard that’s been applied here. One, let’s talk politically the double standard here. First, remember in the campaign, Barack Obama said “Family’s off limits. You don’t talk about my family….and….”the candidate who must be obeyed”….everybody adhered to that, and they did leave his family alone, and they haven’t done that on the other side of the ticket, and it has continued to this day. So that’s a political double standard."

For Palin to say it is a "double standard" because the Obama girls are not picked on like her family is ridiculous. They did not parade their daughters around. The Obama girls were on the stage with their father and mother at the Democratic convention and then one more time when he won the presidency. The rest of the time they were in school and out of the camera's range. When a recent interview by Brian Williams at the White House scoured the entire staff and followed them around - the girls, once again, were NOT in front of the cameras. The Obamas clearly know to keep their children as sheltered as they possibly can and didn't and won't use them as props.

And, news flash: You lost, he's way smarter than you, way more liked than you, and has more class than you will ever even imagine to have. Quit being so very green and jealous and just go back to Alaska and be red - in neck that is. And remember that it is not Obama, but President Obama, honey. Show some respect. And maybe stop and listen and you might actually learn a few things.