WNYMedia has found and published controversial emails allegedly sent by Carl Paladino, Buffalo real estate magnate and newly announced candidate for Governor of New York. The emails contain rather crude racist and sexist material. WNYMedia’s report has been picked up by countless national sites including Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Opposing Views and the NY Daily News and, as a result, the amount of traffic to WNYMedia’s Paladino’s story has reportedly crashed their servers multiple times throughout the day. And now, the Buffalo News has chimed in with an article on the controversy.
The emails, which are too crude to publish here, contain images of Africa tribesmen dancing entitled “Obama Inaugaration Rehearsal” and an email showing chimpanzees doing an Irish dance entitled “proof the Irish discovered Africa” and another email depicting bestiality.
Paladino’s campaign manager, Michael Caputo, has responded by saying “Many of these emails he received were off-color, some were politically incorrect, few represented his own opinion, and almost none of them were worth remembering. We’re not surprised the political establishment feels threatend by Carl’s drive to take Albany back for taxpayers.”
He went on to say that “It figures that members of the party who brought us record taxes, record spending and record debt would want to change the topic from reform to having sex with horses and S&M parlors.”
Of course, we all knew Paladino’s campaign for governor would be unorthodox and off-color. But few of us expected he would be at the center of this many controversies this quickly. We’re not 3 weeks from Paladino’s already-notorious comparison of the passing of health reform to 9/11 and now he’s in the middle of another firestorm.
Paladino, a love-him-or-hate-him figure if ever there was one, was a long shot to win the governor’s race prior to the recent controversies. Now, one wonders if his campaign is over before it really started. Maybe Paladino could benefit from Mayor Brown’s offer of hug therapy.
Does this change your view of Paladino? Should these emails have been released? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Paladino responds to reporter’s questions. Video from WNYMedia.Net.
Update: Keith Olbermann