Letterman Responds to Palin's Top Ten Criticisms

Here's the top ten list that caused the Letterman - Palin controversy:

10. Visited New York landmarks she normally only sees from Alaska
9. Laughed at all the crazy-looking foreigners entering the U.N.
8. Made moose jerky on Rachael Ray
7. Keyed Tina Fey's car
6. After a wink and a nod, ended up with a kilo of crack
5. Made coat out of New York City rat pelts
4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa. Regis couldn't tell the difference.
3. Finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson's always talking about
2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her "slutty flight attendant" look
1. Especially enjoyed not appearing on Letterman
Additionally, Letterman made a joke about Yankee star Alex Rodriguez "knocking up" one of Palin's daughters at a Yankees game, and another about Palin having problems keeping Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter. Palin believed, or at least said they believed, that the jokes were directed at 14-year-old daughter Willow, who recently attended a game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

On last night's episode, Letterman tried to clear the air on last night's episode, and invited the Alaska governor onto his show. He announced on-air that his real target was 18-year-old Bristol Palin, who became a single mother earlier this year, and whose pregnancy obviously embarrassed the "family values" Palin camp during last year's Presidential race.

In his response Wednesday night, which, for Letterman, a pretty long segment, of seven minutes, Letterman noted in refernce to Sarah Palin that he had stepped into traffic. As he noted, they're just jokes. He read the response from Sarah and Todd Palin from their own website.

"I'm telling you, I recognize that these are ugly. These are actually ugly. These are borderline ... but again, in an act of desperation to get cheap laughs, which is what I've been doing for the last 30 years. [...]

"These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was OK for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No."

He also asked, "why haven't we heard from Eliot Spitzer and Alex Rodriguez?" Thicker skins, perhaps?

Here is the video David Letterman's response to Sarah Palin, attached to this post.