A Guy Named Carl Paladino Is New York's Biggest Jerk

The Jerk Of The Week Award Goes To
Carl Paladino. Congratulations! 

When given an opportunity to make a statement or a joke in public, don't be a gross jerk.

That nugget of advice might seem obvious to most of us, but not a guy named Carl Paladino who obviously didn't get the memo.

This all started when a western New York publication,  Buffalo ArtVoice, had one of those end-of-the-year easy features where they ask people in their community wishes for the new year.

Practically every news outlet does this,  and the answers are usually heartfelt wishes or a joke.

ArtVoice asked numerous prominent people around Bufflalo, "What would you most like to happen in 2017?" and "What would you like to see go away in 2017?"

None of the answers were particularly newsworthy except for  those by Carl Paladino, who is on the Buffalo School Board and was a New York co-chairman of Donald Trump's election campaign earlier this year. .

For 2017, Paladino wished that Barack Obama would contract mad cow disease and die after having sex with a Hereford.

Barrel of laughs right?

Paladino got even worse when he described what he'd like to see go away in 2017. He answered, "Michelle Obama. I'd like her to return to bein a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."

Incredibly racist and crude right?

Not to old Carl here.

Paladino later confirmed to the Buffalo News that he made those statements. "Yeah, I'm not politically correct.....They asked what I want and I told them."

He later put out a statement that read in part, "Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don't like my answer."

To nobody's surprise, not many people do like his answer. Trump's transition team hated it, along with pretty much everybody in New York from the governor on down.

Even Paladino's own son, who now runs the real estate firm that Carl founded, posted a message on Facebook distancing him and his company from dad's stupidity.

The son, William, said in part, "We do not condone the statements made about the President of the United States and his wife. They were disrespectfu and absolutely unnecessary."

Fellow members of the Buffalo School Board, which serves a student population that has lots of racial minorities, are trying to find ways to kick Paladino off the board.

It's about time. Paladino has a long history of being a jerk, including in 2010 when he unsuccessfully (thank gawd) ran for governor of New York. At the start of and during that campaign, Paladino e-mailed racist and pornographic images that apparently somehow to his mind showed his intention to run for office.

Whatever.

Yeah, Paladino is an irrelevant jerk. Part of me was tempted to just ignore him.

But as I always say, it's good to shine a cleansing light on the most toxic of people and public figures like Paladino.

I still feel like I have to take a shower after writing about this idiot, though.