Who Wrote The Paladino Speech?

Oct 13th, 2010

There is a small wrinkle in the evolution of the now infamous anti-gay speech given by NY gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino that should be getting more attention. Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, revealed something very interesting.


From the NYTimes:
"On Tuesday, at a news conference in Albany, Mr. Caputo took responsibility... saying he had cooperated with the Orthodox community in writing the statement. “The speech mistake is on me,” he said."

Wait a minute. The speech was written with Orthodox community leaders? I call that pandering of the worst sort.

Andrew Sullivan goes further:

"So a Republican candidate doesn't exactly pander to religious fundamentalists; he just asks them directly what they want him to say; and they effectively co-write the speech. This isn't pandering; it's fusion. That this occurs with Jewish fundamentalists rather than Christian fundamentalists is simply a matter of geography and demographics. What matters is that the GOP is increasingly not a secular political party, but a fundamentalist religious organization seeking political power."

It matters not whether it's Christianity, Judaism or even Islam (however unlikely), a candidate collaborating with repressive religious groups on campaign material is worse than misguided; it's dangerous.