In a shocking twist unforeseen by M. Night Shyamalan and Carnac the Magnificent, Carl Paladino lost the gubernatorial election yesterday to Democratic opponent Andrew Cuomo. And he went out on a typically classy, non-violent note in his kooky concession speech (you can watch it below) last night:
I have a message for Andrew Cuomo, the next Governor of New York. I've always said my baseball bat is a metaphor for the people who want to take their government back. But this isn't my bat after all. As our next Governor, you can grab this handle and bring the people with you to Albany. Or you can leave it untouched and run the risk of having it wielded against you, because make no mistake: you have not heard the last of Carl Paladino.
Is Paladino NY's overprotective father in this scenario? Or is he the boyfriend NY dumped? But if we dumped him, then why is he promising to call us later? Didn't he swear off campaigning ever again? And the orange baseball bat isn't his baseball bat? Then whose is it? Baseball batgate 2010 begins now.
The question then turns to what went wrong. It all started out so promisingly for Paladino, with the bestiality emails, stalking ducks, and a constant stream of verbal diarrhea. No, he was screwed because he didn't know how to campaign, as the Buffalo News puts it: "A series of gaffes and missteps took what a lot of voters saw as an authentic and genuine voice for change and turned it upside down, leaving the Buffalo businessman with a public image chock-full of political warts and blemishes."
According to Alan S. Chartock, a political science professor at the University at Albany and a radio talk-show host, Paladino's main problem was the thing he viewed as his main strength: his anger. "He was looking for a fight even when there wasn't a fight. Once people saw him as out of control, he was done."
