The phenomenon that is Carl Paladino is worth watching, as it speaks to the frustration of people throughout New York state with the miserable mess that is government in Albany.
As anyone who's sat through one of his lectures, um, speeches can attest, Paladino is clearly off his rocker. And yet New York Republicans overwhelmingly nominated him for governor over former Long Island congressman Rick Lazio, the Republican Party's endorsed candidate.
In Niagara County, Paladino's margin was an almost unbelievable 94 percent to Lazio's 6 percent.
People are fed up with high taxes, governmental corruption and Albany gridlock. Paladino's appeal is across the board, with not only Republicans but Independents and Democrats flocking to his camp in numbers.
They're willing to forgive a series of breathlessly revealed e-mails that make Paladino appear to be both racist and sexist. They're overlooking the fact that his oratory borders on the comically inept. And an astonishing number seem to heartily endorse his recent proposal to house generational welfare recipients in unused state prisons, where they would receive job training and take lessons in "personal hygiene."
Nobody is giving Paladino much of a chance to beat Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the November election, but a couple of months ago nobody gave him much of a chance to beat Lazio.
Democratic candidates across the country are expected to suffer the backlash of continuing high unemployment and record home foreclosures that their party's president and congressional majorities have been powerless to address. And the huge Democratic majority that swept Barack Obama into office two years ago seems largely disillusioned and disappointed this year.
Paladino has been swept up in the national Tea Party movement, a loose-knit group of fiscal and social conservatives whose candidates also upset traditional Republican candidates in Delaware, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Florida, Utah and Nevada. Whether any of these nominees can win in a general election remains to be seen, but Democratic and Republican leaders alike are concerned about the phenomenon.
While we find some of Paladino's views troubling, we believe that his candidacy -- and the Tea Party movement in general -- might just be the kick in the pants needed by the ineffectual major parties in New York and this country.
For years people have vowed to vote against incumbents, but this time they finally seem to be doing it.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Sept. 21, 2010 |