Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Apologies do not change Paladino's spots
And Bob Herbert says we need to hear a lot more from the Buffalo Giant Douche before we consider him for any public office.
Mr. Paladino has acknowledged forwarding the e-mails, which he said was evidence of “poor judgment” on his part. But that’s not sufficient. The e-mails raise legitimate questions about the fitness of the sender to hold the highest office in the state, and Mr. Paladino should feel an obligation to put those questions to rest.The sad part is he is getting a lot of support from oblivious voters.
The images and videos are so blatantly hostile to blacks and women that it’s fair to wonder whether Mr. Paladino is prejudiced against them. He’s made it clear that he’s fully capable of mindless stereotyping — letting us know, for example, that people from Manhattan, who tend to be “smug” and “elitist,” are his least favorite New Yorkers.
Questions about possible prejudice are germane whenever a candidate aspires to public office. In Mr. Paladino’s case, the questions are entwined with some of his specific policy positions. He believes that space in prisons should be turned into work camps in which poor people would get, among other types of training, classes in personal hygiene. The camps would be part of Mr. Paladino’s proposed “Dignity Corps,” the inference being that the poor lack dignity in the first place, along with their presumed lack of cleanliness. (It’s a good bet that Mr. Paladino is oblivious to the extreme irony of someone who sends out racist and pornographic e-mails counseling others about personal dignity.)
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