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I want to play the Devils advocate here.
First, let me say that I rarely watch him, actually, not for years.
Sometimes he’s funny. Sometimes he’s not.

Now, the joke was in bad taste, no doubt. Even if we all agree to that, I’m having a hard time with all the attacks on him and the calls to apologize or him be fired or whatever.

First, it was a joke. A joke, folks. Jokes by themselves are understood to not be “reality”.
Second, why should he not now apologize for every joke he ever told? Certainly, she is not the first one he has made uncomfortable.
Third, she is in the public eye, and is therefore fair game of sorts. Like it or not, America has a long, long tradition of politics where jokes and comments and subtle implications are part of the landscape. Simple searches of historical newspaper political cartoons, etc will turn up tons of stuff that was way, way, way more scandalous than this incident.
Fourth, and this is my opinion, I for one want leaders who can take the heat. If they bend or break when Letterman says a few wisecracks, how are they going to react if Russia decided to send 3 nuke subs our way and our satellites detected them arming the warheads?

Now there are statements like “Should politicians families be immune” and stuff like that.
NO WAY!!

Remember the whole “slippery slope” doctrine, folks? Remember when in order to get a divorce, people had to prove adultery, or physical abuse or whatever?
Now we have “no fault” divorce. Have things gotten better?

In fact over time, comedians have been some of the best at pointing out the inconsistencies and contradictions and even outright lies that politicians have foisted on us.

Yeah, Letterman deserves a kick in the behind. And if a few sponsors balk, that’s probably not a bad thing.

But the whole situation has been over-reacted to.

JMHO.