Carl Paladino, the millionaire GOP gubernatorial candidate who forwarded offensive emails, including a video of a woman fucking a horse, gallantly apologized yesterday to "any of the ladies who were offended" by the "emails they hacked from my computer." The Western New York developer seems to have missed the point that when you forward racist and extremely explicit emails to hundreds of people, "they" do not need to hack into your computer to publish them. Paladino continued: "I say this to any of the men out there who have never opened a graphic image on the internet: don't vote for me. For those who have, I welcome your vote."
Apologizing for the raciness rather than the racism of the emails may be savvy politics. The Tea Partiers whose support he's hoping to win are galvanized by charges of racism (and many of them agree that the President is a bushman and a pimp). However, I venture that few have joined Paladino in openly sharing their affection for bestiality porn. It is this interest of his, hitherto rare in American politics, that really threatens to bleed him of support.
This isn't Paladino's first gloriously insane moment. Not long ago, He earned attention by saying that the recently-passed reform of our health care system was "worse than 9/11." (Rebuked by Representative Jerrold Nadler, who represents Ground Zero, Paladino fired back by releasing an open letter to Nadler that declared, "I am not impressed that you kissed enough asses to chair a committee of politicians in the Congress.") Earlier, he alleged the superintendent of Buffalo schools had been hired because he was black, and referred to members of the Buffalo School Board as "the parasitic Black Sisterhood." An affair of his produced an out-of-wedlock child, whom he is slowly "integrating" into his family. (At least he's in favor of one sort of integration!)
All this eccentricity would likely doom the candidacy of a politician dependent on campaign contributions. But Paladino is committed to spending $10 million of his own money, so he can blurt out whatever crazy thought comes to mind. Which is precisely what political scribes are hoping happens between now and the Republican primary in September.
