I’d bet my car against $100 that Letterman had no inkling which Palin daughter was at the game, and assumed the audience would understand that the joke was directed at the daughter who had the baby. (…and at horndog pro athletes.) And based on the fact that the joke was laughed at (mediocre though it was), the audience took it just that way.
Mainstream audiences usually don’t appreciate sexual humor directed at 14yo girls.
So, yeah, manufactured outrage.
It’s also a decent bet that Letterman isn’t obsessed with the details of politics, and he liked John McCain until McCain blatantly lied to him.
And based on his jokes during the campaign he understood that Palin was a small town ditz who had shouldn’t come near the presidency. Just like Christopher Buckley understood that, and most non-fanatics.
I note that the new edition of the CIA World Factbook lists US outrage output as having increased 77% since 2007, offsetting a steep decline in steel production.
Palin got most of her political experience as mayor of a town of less than 10,000.
The factions that need to be dealt with in a town of 10,000 are vastly different than the factions that need to be dealt with in a city with a million inhabitants. The complexity of school systems, race relations, unionism, corporate power, state vs local authority, law enforcement, emergency actions…
Clear? I was raised in several towns of between 600–40,000 population and have nothing against small or big towns.
I remember that. McCain was drummed out of the party and never heard from again. I’m sure I have a quote someplace, but Palin was so angry that she refused to have anything to do with McCain in the future.
It’s nice to see such strong advocates of feminism as Gov Palin. It shows that the GOP has a big tent. Big enough, in fact, that it can hold thousands of clowns.
There is heavy density of stupid people everywhere, but the bigger the population, the more opportunity there is for intelligence to band together and thrive among the stupid.
How about Mohandas Gandhi? Born in Porbandar, Gujarat.
Present population is 150,000, but much of the town’s economy is based around being Gandhiji’s birthplace, so it was probably an awful lot less in his time.
You’re even more ridiculous than I had previously thought, which is really amazing. He grew up in Hot Springs, not Little Rock. Can we get your rules on city population and IQ, so we can try to make sense of it all? I guess we would need to know the effect of dwelling time as well.
Anyway, Hope - 10,467
Hot Springs - 37,847
Little Rock - 187,452
All 2005 numbers.
What the fuck are you talking about? Is there a subject on which you don’t have an idiotic opinion?