CNN

[...] it will be interesting to see if SHE has as much class as DAVE [...]

Ugh, don't apologize. She's playing the victim, yet again. If she wants to parade her family out in public as political leverage, then she doesn't get to complain about how the media takes shots at them too. Leave them at home if you don't want them in the crossfire. The blame is squarely upon Gov. Palin's own head.

YOU GO Sarah !!!!
This country was cheated when Mccain/Palin lost . Hopefully Obama will be ousted in 2012.

who really cares what the palin Tribe thinks or has to say. Go gut a moose sarah

The kids should be left out of it all. They aren't the ones choosing to run for office...all their flawed parents' are.

if Dave has the smarts to come out with an appology, maybe Nancy can do the same and Sonia can say she is sorry for what she said!

Good on ya, Dave...you are off the 'blocked show' list in my house!!

Celebrities feel that their position gives them freedom to do anything, say anything they want about other people. They don't have to worry about the consequences of the things they say. They are above what is expected from the rest of society. In my corporate position, if I had made similar "jokes" about one of my c-workers I would have been fired on the spot. Should a celebrity be immune from that policy, I think not. David Letterman, retire and fade off into the obscurity you so richly deserve.

It's a new world! Liberals have been decrying the way women are characterized and treated for years, while being berated by conservatives for being "politically correct." I guess the Republicans just needed a dose of their own medicine, and I for one am glad they finally are getting it.

Wow Mr. Letterman, you let me down. Can't believe you actually cowed down to Miss Airhead. You definitely lost some of my respect. I guess your perceived image is more important than your integrity.

CNN is crap for continuing to report on this....personality conflicts and he-said/she-said gossip instead of news on the issues and things that affect the rest of us.....

CNN is drifting heavily towards infotainment....

I am a Republican and I can honestly say...

Fair enough. Let's move on.

I just watched the so called apology. There were no apologetic words uttered in that speech. It was a speech, not an apology. He almost, but did not directly apologize to the family. He should still be canned, fired, whatever to get this idiot off the air. A "JOKE" should never be directed at another human being, deserved or not. That JOKE was not only without taste, it was inappropriate, and disgusting. David Letterman, listen to me now. I will not be listening to you in the future. I have tuned you out. You are not on my list of shows to watch.

This shows that Letterman is the better and higher person! I believe Sarah Palin, especially the one who ran for the Vice President, should be more concern about the current situation of U.S. and world economy rather than shows her emotion over someone's joke. If she can be swayed by someone's comment, then how dare of her, even thinking about running for U.S. Vice President. How a person, who cannot manage her own household, child and emotion, could even think about managing the world leading country (United States)? She does not even know how she should behave at her age and her status as a mother and a governor. Honestly, I don't know. Maybe I am the one who does not know what is right!

Surely Letterman does not deserve anything better from CBS than what Don Imus received from NBC for his vile sexist/racist comments: A pink slip and a kick out of the studio's door!
It's irrelevant what political affiliation you have; Letterman's "joke" was a very serious attempt to rob the Palin girls of any human dignity. To expect their mother or father to sit silently by or to laugh it off, would be insane! We witnessed enough woman-hatred during the primaries and during the election. You don't have to be a neanderthal or a conservative to think that Letter crosssed the line and the river of societal decency. And his apology was in fact a further slap on the face to girls and women everywhere. Enough is enough. Fire this pathetic perv!

Palin needs to get over herself and get back to work for Alaskan's. She will run in 2012 and make a total fool of herself and the GOP.

Good for Dave, but I still question why he thought it was OK to tell that joke, even when he intended it for 18 year old Bristol.

The joke was out of line. Letterman has apologized. It's time to put it to rest.

I really think the smirk on his face took away from the apology and the week it took him to come up with the wording – no excuse. If you have to explain the apology, it is not a very good apology.
"As they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke," he said.

Oh, Boo Hoo to that woman! It was a JOKE and if she thinks her kids are that innocent, then, she needs to look again. She put herself in the spotlight by accepting the nomination for vice president canidate. We all know that Letterman, as well as other shows make fun of canidates as well as their family. So what if it were her teenage daughter. Its sad that this is the America we live in now. We have to watch every thing we do or someone sues, or, worse, throws a huge hissie fit!
I love David Letterman, and I find him comedic and twisted humor. Its what I've watched him for 18 years now for. Not so he can get up there and do clean, family comedy. Get a life Sara Palin! Go check your lipstick and YOU leave David alone!

Good for David Letterman to give a sincere apology. Let's hope that all people, conservative and liberal, republican and democrat, serious commentators and comedians, learn from this event.

Palin wins

Okay, he apologized...now can Sarah Palin just go away? She is so irrelevent.

this is ridiculous. so this guy is still apologizing for something he said 2or 3weeks ago. I wonder how palin wants to win election by hyping little things to look as if its big. she doesnt even forgive. she said Obama palin arround with terrorist and she didnt apologize now she wants everyone to apologize for making joke. common grow up palin.

nicholas
lagos, Nigeria

The headline makes it look like Palin was in a competition. The headline should read Letterman apologizes.

I think Sarah Palin is using this as an excuse to keep her name out there. David Letterman is a comedian that made a crude joke. He has apologized- let it go!! Of course she will not. She will milk it for all it's worth. What I find amazing is there are actually people who consider this woman presidential material. Whatever you are smoking...PLEASE STOP!!! This woman needs to please return to Alaska and let the lower 48 alone. We do not want or need your kind down here, We have enough of our own..Rush, Cheeney, Hannity, Beck, Coulture...actuality pretty much all the GOP fall into this category. Manufactured controversy does serve the purpose of never having to have any ideas to actually fix say healthcare, rising energy costs, rising unemployment, two wars.......

I feel bad for the younger daughter. But I have no sympathy for Palin. Where was her outrage and moral authority when people were yelling "Kill him" at her campaign rallies?

David, shame on you. Don't you know that only Sarah can exploit her kids. When Jay Leno did it, it was ok ... she thought she was gonna be in Washington. Now ... when she's trying to stay relevant, it's an ISSUE. Please. Stop giving this woman air time. Next.

It's about time. The joke was tasteless and the Palin family deserved an apology.

That said- it's over. Let's move on- until the next time.

As a mother Sarah Palin's first responsibility lies with her family not her political party. When Sarah Palin decided to accept the nomination for vice president she knowingly and willingly put herself and her family in the public eye. As every vice presidential nominee before her has discovered, the press and media will uncover, make public, pick apart, and judge every last bit of personal information that exists about them and their family. Instead of protecting her pregnant teenage daughter from public scrutiny she put her and her boyfriend on the world stage for everyone to see and judge while she attempted to advance her political career. The only apology that should take place is mother apologizing to daughter.

So when Bill Clinton has jokes made about fooling around on Hillary, every comedian should apologize because they made a crude joke.

1) The attention given to Sarah Palin is kind of disgusting. She made herself look quite foolish during the Presidential election with not only a poor knowledge of the post she was running for, but a lack of knowledge of the World outside Alaska let alone America.

2) A monkey could tell that it was a joke aimed at the hypocrisy of the "abstinence" stance of Palin and her family while her daughter got pregnant in the middle that moral high ground preaching. It was also a stab at the philandering of A-Rod. No-one took issue when pictures of A-Rod coming out of a Toronto hotel with a known escort were published. No-one complained when the New York papers blasted A-Rod.

3) The media lapping up Sarah Palin every 30 seconds is really over the top. Aren't there more important things to discuss? How about cover one of the Governors who are actually running their state responsibly instead of rewarding press-seeking behavior.

So let me get the a woman (Sarah Palin) advocates abstinence education but cannot teach it to her daughter, and her own network (Fox) run by Roger Ailes who directed a show with Rush Limbaugh where they referred to Chelsea Clinton as the Whitehouse dog, and accuse Barack Obama of being born somewhere else get away with this false outrage.

Politicians have far worse things said about them and their family on a nightly basis. There are two reasons why this is in the news at all.
1-The hypocrisy of Mrs. Abstinence having a knocked-up unwed teenage daughter
2-Because Palin is making it an issue.

Right on. He's right to appologize. I love Letterman and constantly watched him throughout the pre-election. His joke was terrible. Couldn't hit anymore below the belt. However, the whole thing just goes to show when Sarah Palin gets a bite on her hook she will reel and reel and reel and reel and reel and reel and reel and reel and reel and reel..... She could have played her hand a little sharper. She really needs to get some advisors that know what they're doing. This whole thing could have really worked for her and boosted her, but SHE's the one who wore it thin.

It's funny that a guy whose job it is to make jokes about people in the new is forced to apologize for a joke about Palin's daughter getting pregnant...ok, he had the wrong daughter, but if the joke was about Bristol, come on. Palin dragged that 17-year old pregnant kid out in front of millions of people all the while spouting abstinence only for everyone else's kids. Now Bristol supports abstinence – sorry but the toothpaste is out of the tube! Hypocrites. We're supposed to be happy that she made the right choice – Palin's platform doesn't offer choice. This woman will do anything to stay in the news, including exploiting her own kids, but apparantly that right only belongs to the Palin parents, so back off Dave!

What a load of crap that Dave was pushed into a position where he felt he had to apologize.

Im glad he apoligized, now what no more about this issue it should be squashed ok.

Slow news day, eh? Why does the media still cover this?

Palin, get over it! You lost the election! I know you like to stay in the news but nobody cares who you are or what you say!

I think Sarah Palin owes all of us an apology for helping dumb-down the U.S. more than one could have possibly imagined. Palin's anti-intellectual dialogue continues with her pathetic attempt to make David Letterman look like something he's mot - that being a "dirty old man". Brain cells beware!

I noticed while watching the re-runs of Letterman's jokes that the audience laughed heartily. There were no boos and no one walked out. Gov. Palin has milked this situation for all she can get out of it.

I presume she will discover another outrage very soon.

Are you serious?? Please more Iran coverage. People are dying in the streets for freedom. Yet you refuse to let this complete waste of a story go. Bad on CNN.

Good for Letterman, but I'm kinda sorry to see Palin get one more news cycle out of this...talk about exploiting her kids.

I don't understand why Governor Palin cannot take the heat, like many of the other female politicians. For example Hillary was mocked brutally, and her private suffering was tastelessly exploited by comedians, yet she maintained grace, and an above the fray attitude. Sometimes, the best way to deal with people like Letterman is to just ignore them.

Maybe Palin can now apologize for impersenating a politician.

He told a bad joke but she is milking this for all its worth! I blame John McCain for letting her loose on society!

No need to apologize. Don't forget Palin was the one to say recently "screw political correctness." How quickly she forgot that. And how arrogant for her to say that Letterman's joke was in bad taste but then deny that saying "it would be wise to keep Willow away from Letterman" was in bad taste. Sarah Palin is just one huge mouthful of bad taste that refuses to go away.

Palins statements of the incident were very misleading.

I can't believe she got the apology, she is a joke, she is the reason John McCain lost the election because is a complete idiot.

I heard the joke. Probably in poor taste.
Anyone who watches the show/familiar with Letterman knows it was not about a 14 year old girl. Letterman gave his apology, now can everyone move on?

Letterman should have done this the day after. He is now bowing to pressure – not out of sincerity. He's pathetic and should be fired.

Now Sarah, please shut up and go away. Your family needs you more than the spotlight does. If your ego can't accept that, you'll continue making mountains out of mole hills and continue making a fool of yourself in public.

It was more than a bad joke, it was inexcusable. Imagine if that joke was about Obama's daughters or Chelsea Clinton. He would have been fired and at the very least his apology would have come day 1 not a week later. Besides, does it matter which daughter? It's just as bad to say something like that about any young girl, or woman of any age. Don't blame Sarah Palin, wouldn't want my daughter around Letterman, or any man, who made a joke like that about my daughter. Where are the boundries?

too little too late
if only the target had been a liberal!

Thankyou David. Now your a Man.

Why is this even news? Who cares?

Just more fake outrage from the blame everyone Palin. Nobody was outraged that her 17 year old daughter WAS actually knocked up, but suddenly Palin cares when someone "talks" about it. Give me a break, How can anyone take this woman seriously? Don't we have more important things to care about?

Good for her. It is time to end with the double standards practiced by the Obama fans. Respect other people if you expect any respect.

Oh, take a joke Palin!@ Guess when you are a joke, taking one is hard!

I consider myself a liberal. Now, before anyone here decides to blast Sarah Palin because she's... Sarah Palin, think back to how you reacted when Rush made disparaging remarks about a preteen Chelsea Clinton during the early years of Bill Clinton's presidency.

Bottom line, children, especially minor children, should be off limits. I'm sure Sarah Palin will give us plenty of bulletin board material before too long, but the kids are off limits, period!

He only apologizes after he is told he will lose his job. I am so offended by Letterman. He has insulted all women as far as I'm concerned. If all of America would get rid of their televisions we could change the next generation. My son is an "A" student. I stopped television when I was pregnant and it was one of the best things I have ever done! You too can discover the beauty that is your life! We don't need Hollywood, it has been a source for so much destruction in our country and the way the world perceives us.

Letterman was just caught up in the disrespectful climate of the Left-wing media. People on the far left are known for unchecked speech, and bad manners. Hopefully, Letterman's excesses and apologies will signal a change.

Mr. Letterman needs to know, no matter whose daughter he joked about or whatever the age of the girl is, that kind of joke just despised all women. It was unforgivable.

It was about time he apologized, if it was any of my two daughters he made the joke about I would be paying him a visit, and when it was over he would have a black eye.
He was completely out of line.
Oh I forgot… I completely disagree with governor Palin, But she is a mother first, and Tod should of pay a visit to Letterman , the Palins deserved better than what letterman ditch out..

What a jerk....

Nobody's buying it Dave, so you might as well get back on your knees for Barry.

It is SOOOOOO maddening how the mainstream media even now continue to be cowed by the radical right to give infinite column inches and/or air time and/or bandwidth to the "outraged" rants of the radical right. Palin is just one of the more recent of the beneficiaries of this editorial spinelessness.

OOOOOHHHH! Maybe if you keep feeding them attention, they'll like you!!!!!

Quit this nonsense. This is truly one of the most ridiculously overwraught and overplayed non-stories of the year (involving the most ridiculously overwraught and overplayed personas in the radical right–Sarah Palin). It is a shame that his corporate overlords finally forced Letterman to make multiple apologies. The first one was fine.

Lettermen should be fired, just like they fired Imus.

I was so disappointed and disgusted that I will never watch his late show again. It seems apparent that Letterman and others feel it is open season on Palin. Who are these " artistic"types that bring this stuff foward-not to imply any excuse for Dave. He seems determined
to beat Conan in the ratings but one wonders what his plan is with this
kind of stupidity. Dave needs to examine his own life while selecting his jokes.

We have two examples where women have been trashed for being out spoken in their beliefs on controversal issues. Wake up America
there is clearity between right and wrong and I hope we are teaching
it to our kids.

i have been watching Letterman for 20 plus years i understand hes not everyone's taste But in all those years i have never heard him make a sexual comment about an underage girl EVER . The joke was more about Arod and his dating habits then palin but Bristol does fit t he profile You cant pick your family Governor
Where has Freedom of speech gone? and Dave i never thought you would apologize for a joke that the people that watch you knew was not about the younger palin and the flight attendant joke was funny and acurate as far as what most normal men have as a passing thought of the Governors "look"

Palin's fifteen minutes are up.

Who cares can't we move pass this one!

So does an Alaska governor -really- have nothing better to do these days than to sign autographs, do press junkets about... well nothing, and to complain about what she sees on television? I thought you gun-worshiping Republican machos were tougher than to whine because someone on TV made you mad.

Good. David Letterman was right to apologize. Now can we all move on?

She's below Pathetic on the Lame Meter of Life. Seriously. And BTW I am thrilled this has made Letterman's ratings rise. Palin, you are indeed one whiny specimen. Grow a set, would you?

Could Sarah Palin just go home and get out of the media. She lost – get use to it and since she used the elder daughter and her pregnancy in the election, she cannot suddenly cry foul with regards to the rest of her family – perhaps she needs to take a parenting course and stay at home and out of the media!

M.

We all have to aplogize to Palin or else shes going to get mad at all of use. Guess we have to aplogize for her OLDER daugther getting knock up when she preaches absents. Also we all going to have to aplogize to Palin for loosing the election.

I also think the Gov should apologize to America for making a bigger deal out of this than it ever should have been and another 5 days of reminding America that she's really not National office material. I wonder if she realizes this has further cost her respect points.

Congrats Gov – I think you actually lose.

Please – can she ever STOP talking about anything that is ONLY important to her and the gossip columns?

Thank you, David. Well done. I trust the Governor will accept the heartfelf apology.

Dave, you don't need to apologize to anybody. You rock, man! People (and Palin).... IT WAS A JOKE!

David, you are a cool guy and it's nice that you apologized, but, I don't think it was necessary. Gov. Palin was just looking for publicity......

I thank that C B S have more controle what letterman whay dont you paologize to palin as well this need to stop.

Too little, too late. Is anybody really stupid enough to believe he's actually sorry? If what he's saying now was the truth, he would not have made the Spitzer joke the next night, or presented the excuses he did the next (retelling the jokes, by the way, this time completely aware of their context).

Don Imus lost his job over less, and his apologes were sincere.

Letterman needs to go.

Good for him and good for her....now lets keep in mind THE KIDS ARE OFF LIMITS on both sides!!!

WOW, if I can believe what CNN is reporting, I will have to say that I have gained some respect for Mr. Letterman.

On with the Show Dave! I've watched you forever and had no plans to change.

An apology may have been made. But I will never watch David Letterman's show again. This joke was uncalled for due to the fact that Willow was only 14 years of age. Then you have to look at the other side of this joke. The only way I see it is that Letterman has no respect for Alan Rodriguez to say such a thing about him.

OK, get over yourself Palin. Geez! it was a joke, and you even misinterpret it. You definitely need to spend some time in more comedy clubs. Don't the "great" state of Alaska have them? I am so sick and tired of people telling others what to watch and listen. Get over yourself, "no one is into YOU, except Todd. Ohmygosh, was that comment inappropriate? Should I apologize? Heck no!!

Interesting/amusing apology from Dave. I doubt Palin gets it. LOL

Palin may have 'won' her apology.......

David Letterman shows us he has class, which is something the Palin clan has yet to display.

Now will she go away!!!!!!

Lame move by CBS execs to force Letterman to issue an apology.
Lame move by all media to continue to cover the queen of Pork.
Palin will never go away as long as the media keeps covering her.

What is this, Iran? Why would a comedian apologize for a joke?

Letterman should apologize. There is no reason to attack kids. Say what you want about the politicians, but keep the kids out of it!

Dose it mater the age of the child , and the party of tolerance backs letterman??????????????????????????????????? Wrong is wrong .
Spin this

So it's all about who wins?? If anything this just adds to the freak show that is the Palin political existence...

He didn't mean it...he's just afraid he'll get fired like Imus did. Well, what goes around comes around...Letterman's done.

So John McCain gave us the gift that keeps on giving...Sarah Palin. Thanks John!

I'm not a Palin fan, think she has air between her ears but this time I have to agree with her. Kids are off limits.

He should still be fired. If it took him this long to realize how terrible his joke was about young women, then he is a very sick man who has no place on tv. This wasn't about comedy, it was an attack on a conservative candidate and her family. This is too little too late. I for one will never watch him again. Disgusting.

So now will she go away. she milked that joke for all it was worth & then some.