Here's my take on Letterman's obsession with Sarah Palin:

-ideology clouds what you find funny. If you're a lefty, then a Palin joke is priceless. If you're a righty, it's lame. That's just the way it is.

-Letterman is a comedian, and he tells jokes, and he shouldn't have to apologize for them. If they're not funny, or in poor taste, or horribly offensive - the marketplace will deal with it. That's free enterprise.

-Having said all that, Letterman still makes me sad. He's an old, rich man relegated to choosing easy targets for cheap laughs. He has an entire bumbling administration to poke fun of - along with a conference room full of writers to do it for him- and he goes after the daughter of an Alaskan mayor. Letterman was a god in the eighties - now he's just a mere, sad mortal driven by fumbling bitterness. And that makes me sad for him - and for those who never saw how truly great he once was.

Which leads me to my final point: Chris Elliott was the true genius.