Paladino, on why his racial / pornographic / bestiality e-mails haven’t sunk his campaign (he’s now within 5-6 points of Cuomo):

observer.com

“You guys live in a different world than those people out there,” he said, motioning to the glass windows. “That stuff goes all over. That internet is wild with this stuff. Everybody. And they sit there and they say, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know it was so bad to send those things around.’”

As Paladino laughed, his campaign manager, Michael Caputo, chimed in.

“The first thing we did was put a Democrat political operative, investigator on Carl. Everything he found, we polled, did focus groups,” said Caputo, who specializes in crisis public relations.

“We found that 70 percent of Republican men said that they had received or forwarded the same. And that 55 percent of the general electorate males had done the same thing.

“We also found that the wives of those men thought it was stupid, but they didn’t think it was a disqualifier, as a person. So when it was released that these things happened, one of the first things we did was put Cathy out there to say, you know, what she felt about it. And what she felt was, ‘How stupid are you, Carl?’”

Caputo was referencing a Buffalo News story that featured Paladino’s wife, Cathy, rebutting the charges of racism—an interview suggested and arranged by the campaign shortly after their disclosure. The campaign also put out a video by Paladino’s daughter defending him against the charge, and another one last week, featuring former Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas.