[utahagen]

“...some FReepers were extolling Dave’s ‘solid Midwestern values’”

I believe Letterman was raised with, and still remembers, solid Midwestern values...he just violates them so dramatically and so often that he has dealt with this guilt by denigrating people who uphold those values. I think Letterman hates Sarah Palin — and he does seem to hate her — because she had a baby he would have paid to abort. Letterman looks at Plain and knows she is true to values he has jettisoned.

[supremedoctrine]

I think you just put it very well there.
BTW, how is Herbert Berghof?
I just had to go look up whether it was really you,
but UH died about 5 years ago.I didn’t want to ask
about Herbert because it would sound snarky, and he is surely no longer with us.
(I was once intending to go to HB Studio.)