Carl Paladino to Post reporter Fred Dicker: “I’ll take you out:” Will it help or hurt Paladino?

 By Sam Foster

Last night, NY Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino gave a state-wide audience a taste of why he's referred to as "Crazy Carl."

NY Post reports:

Instead of responding to Dicker's question, Paladino accused him of sending a "goon" to stake out his former mistress at the home where she lives with their love child.

Sunday's Post featured a front-page story about Paladino's wife, Cathy, and his ex-lover, Suzanne Brady. It included an exclusive interview with Cathy Paladino.

"You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino told Dicker.

When Dicker asked how he planned to do that, Paladino replied, "Watch!"
"Are you threatening me?" Dicker asked.

When the candidate's aides jumped in to separate the men, Paladino, referring to Dicker, told them, "F- -k him."

Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, then got involved, and began arguing with Dicker.

Jammie Wearing Fool thinks it's over for Paladino, but there are those that disagree…

"…at a time when voters are furious at government, might Paladino's confrontation actually give him a boost?"

That's the Washington Post for your information.  In fact, WaPo is conducting an unofficial poll and so far, there is no plurality of opinion on a topic most would conclude with a "hell yeah it hurts Paladino."  

But NY is the place John Steinbeck once penned "neither good nor bad but unique."  It's the home of mega-radio shock jock Howard Stern.  NY is a place where polling shows that a majority of people in the state had no problem with Paladino's distasteful emails.  It's a place where sometimes, the bad guy is hero.

Read the Observer interview on Paladino yesterday and you get a different picture than the one hitting NY newsstands this morning; a meme where the Paladino campaign is playing a calculated, but high risk game of political Russian roulette from a campaign manager who once advised Boris Yeltsin.  

Honestly, Paladino has run for office before, but his name was Tom Golisano.  The quiet, upstate reformer was drowned out by the distant NY press.  Paladino throws a grenade everyday, ensuring a headline everyday, but are they useful?  Has Golisano-ism resurrected in Paladino, but Jerry Springer style?    Was his outburst a display of rage over the paparazzi stalking of his ten-year-old daughter as Politico pens, Crazy Carl being crazy, or a political calculation on the same day Gallup declares that distrust in the media is at an all time high?  

November will tell all.