Not that it matters much given the turn in the polls, but he’s getting a bad rap here. Skip ahead to 2:05 for the question about terrorist trials in New York; a double F-bomb quickly follows, which Hotline claims comes from Paladino himself. I don’t think so. I heard what McCormack and AOL News heard, namely, that it sounds like it’s coming from a guy in the audience sitting near the camera. For one thing, there’s no mic reverb on the F-bombs, as there is with everything else Paladino is heard saying, and as McCormack notes, he appears to be in the process of responding to the question as the second curse is uttered. Consider this grim evidence, though, of how firmly the impression of him as a loose cannon has taken hold: At this point, it’s not totally implausible that he might have said something like this. Which is why even my otherwise stalwart conservative buddy Karol is passing on the gubernatorial race this year.

Here’s the statement he released this afternoon clarifying his position on gays. I’m not following the race closely but my impression is that he hasn’t spent a single day in the past month on the offensive against Cuomo. Hard to win the game when the other team always has the ball.