Crazy Carl Will Take You Out

Carl Paladino recently channeled his inner 1920s mobster when he threatened to "take out" a reporter for The New York Post.  Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor in New York, lashed out after the reporter questioned some of Paladino's campaign tactics.  In a hasty attempt to justify Paladino's outburst, his aides released a statement saying that The New York Post had put Paladino's family "in harm's way" when it recently sent photographers to the home of Paldino's mistress, taking pictures of the child he fathered with her 10 years ago.

Personally, I feel that Paladino is a Re-thug-lican.  Before this incident, the media reported on racist and pornographic e-mails Paladino sent to friends.  These e-mails included a picture of President Obama and his wife dressed as a pimp and prostitute, respectively.  Some e-mails contained videos of hardcore pornography and beastiality.  Now we have Paladino's death threat to a reporter showing that he's not only a racist pervert but he needs to consider anger management.  This man should never be allowed in public office.

But I digress.

My opinions of Carl aside, I think the greatest thing about this whole fiasco is the fact that it was caught on tape.  It's amazing that our technology has become so advanced that all reporters have to do is whip out their cell phone and press record.  This kind of thing would not have been possible 15 or even 10 years ago.  It opens up a whole new avenue of reporting and eliminates any doubt about objectivity. The tape never lies.

If this had not been caught on tape, I highly doubt it would've been a story.  Since it was, it has become a national story, with cable stations like MSNBC having a field day.  This story will undoubtedly hurt Paladino's campaign, and New Yorkers will definitely read this story in the paper and see it on the local news.  You can also bet good money that Andrew Cuomo, Paladino's opponent in the gubernatorial race, will make this into a biting campaign ad.

Hopefully this inspires Paladino to learn from the old adage "think before you speak."

Senate Race Heating Up in Alaska

In today's print edition of The New York Times there's a story entitled "Dark Horse Emerges in Alaska: The Incumbent." The article is about Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska who, after being defeated in the primary by Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller, is mounting a write-in campaign for re-election. This is not easy. As the article states: "The only person ever elected to the United States Senate as a write-in candidate was Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, in 1954."

The article is very well written (as to be expected in The New York Times).  The headline is very creative. When thinking of a dark horse emerging in an election one would be inclined to assume an unknown candidate had usurped the establishment candidate.  Instead, it's the incumbent who is making problems for the anti-establishment candidate who won the primary, turning the whole idea on its head.

The article's lede is well thought out. It describes how at a rally Sen. Murkowski told supporters that there's no word in the Aleutian language for "impossible." Right after this the reporter has a quote from Gary Holton, the director of the Alaska Native Language Archive who said: "It's very clear that you can say 'impossible.' Clearly she wasn't checking her facts." After the quote is the information about Strom Thurmond.  This all flows well in setting up the narrative that what Sen. Murkowski is doing is nigh impossible but she actually has a chance of pulling it off.

Alas, no article is perfect, not even in The New York Times. In this one, the editor missed this sentence: "Now Mr. Murkowski is trying to claim his legacy while relying on a disparate group of supporters to help her wage essentially two campaigns." If Sen. Murkowski can change gender in the span of a sentence, perhaps she can win her write-in campaign.