Speculation had been mounting about what Tea Party movement favorite Carl “I’ll Take You Out” Paladino is planning in the light of him buying up big chunks of local TV time and seeking even more time outside of the local markets.
Was he planning to apologize for saying he had the goods on Democratic rival in the New York Governor’s race Andrew Cuomo having an affair and not being able to back it up with a shred of evidence?
Would he pull out?
Or did he have a batch of stunning negative info to reveal about Cuomo? Details HERE.
But apparently it turns out the real reason for a short statement by the man all but Tea Party movement people, conservative talk show hosts and the most die-hard Republican partisans have come to hate (he is poll challenged right now) is not quite as dramatic:
In a televised broadcast that his campaign billed as a “major announcement,” Carl Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor, will condemn the New York Post and reiterate his demand that his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, commit to a debate on the issues.
The content of the three-minute message, to be broadcast live across the state at 5:13 p.m., kept the political world in suspense for several hours, with aides claiming that Paladino had cloistered himself in his Buffalo home and that they had no idea what he was planning to say.
The tight-lipped approach led to speculation that Paladino would use the time to temper a week of hard knocks for his campaign that included clashes with a New York Post reporter over photographs the newspaper took of his 10-year-old daughter, and criticism for comments he made about Cuomo and the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver.
Paladino likened Silver to a “criminal” and implied Cuomo had an extramarital affair, a suggestion he later recanted.
The whole part about Paladino’s grudge match with the NY Post is the most dismaying part of all: of all the big newspapers in New York State, it could be assumed that the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, which also has a big web presence, could be a strong ally for Paladino. Editors will come to the defense of their reporters who they feel are being unfairly singled out or targeted by news sources. And by not letting his ire at the Post and a reporter go, Paladino will only keep lowering his numbers. Paladino increasingly seems to be a person who holds a grudge and can’t hold his temper.
But he can’t hold his voters. His numbers are heading way down south:
According to ABC News, a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday is indicating that New York’s Tea Party candidate, Carl Paladino, has taken the back-seat to Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo by double-digits.
The poll shows that Cuomo is taking the lead, as of now, 55 percent to 37 percent.
This shows quite an increase from a poll taken at Quinnipiac University about 3 weeks ago, showing that Cuomo was leading the race by only 6 points – 49 percent to 43 percent.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.