Politics Now

Carl Paladino's shockingly easy victory in Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial primary didn't just bring him intense coverage in in the mainstream media Wednesday.

It also planted him firmly in the cross hairs of cable TV writers.

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" had a field day with Paladino on Wednesday night's episodes.

They spent several minutes dissecting Paladino's looks, those cringe-inducing e-mails and his suggestion that he may be White House-bound.

Jon Stewart and the "Daily Show" went at Paladino first (the Paladino bit starts 1:43 into the show.), under a segment on the winning performances by several Tea-Party aligned candidates in Tuesday's primaries.

"Meet new Republican nominee for governor of New York Carl Paladino," Stewart said as bouncy, game-show-type music played in the background. "He's a Syracuse Law graduate with Barry Goldwater's fiscal credentials and Abe Vigoda's bedroom eyes."

"Oh, and there's also this," Stewart added, before showing a clip of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann talking about those famous Paladino e-mails.

Stewart, in the voice of a British woman pretending to sip tea:

"Oooh, racist jokes, porn and bestiality, I was told this was going to be a tea party. I didn't know they [bleeped] horses at tea parties."

The show then aired a clip of Paladino defending himself by explaining he gets these kinds of e-mails because he's in the rough-hewn construction industry.

Cut to Stewart, in an outer-borough tough guy voice:

"And a lot of that junk just happens to be videos of broads [having sex with] horses. So what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to not forward it out? C'mon, what part of 'I'm in the construction industry' don't you understand? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

On the Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert started out by showing one of the photos that Paladino forwarded to his friends, a Photoshopped job showing President Obama and Michelle Obama dressed as a '70s blaxsploitation pimp and prostitute.

The show then quotes Paladino explaining that "I sent it to a specific bunch of friends who
somewhat enjoy that humor."

Back to Colbert: "Yes, a very specific group. Black people weren't supposed to get it."

The host then went on to note that one of the e-mails depicted a horse having sex with a woman, but he said it was OK because it was a male horse and a woman … "nothing sick."

Colbert continued: "Now with a resume like that, it's not surprising that the New York governor's office is just a stepping stone. As Paladino's website reminds us, the last governor from Buffalo became president of the United States. That's right folks, he's taking advantage of America's wave of Grover Cleveland fever."

Here's the full clip (The Paladino stuff starts 2:05 into the show):

-- Stephen T. Watson