David Letterman should send Sarah Palin and her husband Todd a thank you note. They reacted just as he hoped to a tasteless joke about one of their daughters and Letterman began beating his opposition Conan O’Brien in the ratings. Letterman doesn’t care about the Palin family or their daughters. He needed to draw attention to his program before O’Brien finds his sea legs over at NBC. What better way to do that than to pick a fight with someone who will overreact and create a controversy that will bring his program to the attention of millions of people who don’t watch it every night. Letterman’s core audience isn’t likely to be offended. As he said tasteless jokes are how he makes a living. Should the Palins have jumped to the defense of their daughter and reacted to the joke. Not in this case. A better response would have been to tell the media that they didn’t see it because they were watching Conan O’Brien and think his show is funnier. Letterman is a comedian. If a bit works he repeats it. If he doesn’t get a positive response from the audience he quickly moves on to something else. That would be a much better lesson in life for their kids than an angry reaction that gets their antagonist higher ratings.

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