Alex Constantine - September 20, 2010
New York Magazine April 12, 2010
We've never understood why anyone in public office, or with aspirations for it, would risk their reputation by forwarding racist chain e-mails, but for whatever reason — maybe they're just too hilarious not to share — they keep doing it and they keep getting in trouble for it. And though this is all well-worn territory by now, perhaps no leaked e-mails have been such a treasure trove of bad taste as those of Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, which were snagged by WNY Media.
Paladino has had some trouble with racial sensitivity in the past, so learning that he's one of those people who sends e-mails portraying Obama as an African tribesman or a seventies-era pimp is, while still no less despicable, not totally surprising. But then the Paladino e-mails take things to a whole new level. He sent around one deep-throat porn video with the comment "this is talent."
He referred to another porn clip, allegedly featuring Miss France 2008, as a "keeper." But best of all was the video he forwarded of a woman doing a horse. No joke. Maybe this is a normal thing for 63-year-old men to do — we don't know, and frankly, we don't want to know. But whatever you think of the merits of bestiality porn, this is a really, really, really bad image for a political candidate. And for someone who, we recently found out, fathered a love child with one of his employees, you might say this is the 9/11 of publicity.
NY Gubernatorial Candidate Carl Paladino’s Racist and Sexist Email History [WNY Media]
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/04/carl_paladino_watches_bestiali.html