I don’t want to leap to conclusions or anything, but I think maybe Mr. Palladino needs to reassess his political ambitions.
Today a recording surfaced of the congressional candidate Ethics Alarms just featured in this Ethics Dunce post telling Buffalo’s WBEN Radio host Peter Hunt on Feb. 13, 2021 that he had recently listened to a broadcast about “Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds.” Palladino continued,
“And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just – they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it.”
Uh, what exactly does “it” mean in that statement, Carl? Exterminating Jews? Marching into Poland? Bombing London? Starting a World War?
As in the previously discussed fiasco, Paladino had a deft response to questions about his longing for another Fuhrer.
“Hitler was a very popular person; the popularity was something we never saw in America,” he told The Buffalo News today. “That had nothing to do with praising him. You look for someone to move an entire population. I was just using that as an example.”
Oh. Interesting choice. You know, the United States had a leader around the same time who was remarkably successful at moving the public. Franklin somebody…
Later, Paladino issued a statement saying in part that…
“…any implication that I support Hitler or any of the sick and disgusting actions of the Nazi regime is a new low for the media. The context of my statement was in regards to something I heard on the radio from someone else and was repeating. I understand that invoking Hitler in any context is a serious mistake and rightfully upsets people. I strongly condemn the murderous atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis.”
Paladino thinks he’s figured out what he did wrong.
“I should have used Churchill,” he told The News.
Ya think, Carl?
I love this guy! He’ll make everyone in the US Congress seem smarter by comparison if he gets elected!
Ethics Alarms 
Churchill sure. He should have never gone lower than Mussolini. Maybe not even Lenin.
But, yes, as much as I don’t like FDR, he was an inspiring leader.
Hell, I would even throw out Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton as viable candidates that could have been used in lieu of Hitler. I might even give Obama the “At least He Tried” Consolation Prize on this point; Obama’s problem is that his entire experience was as an activist and he had no background in winning over the opposition; he didn’t know how to do it.
-Jut
Remember a few decades ago when Gene Wilder had a shortly-lived sitcom? In one episode, an employee comes to Wilder’s magazine publisher character with the cover of the next issue of “Vegetarian Monthly” Hitler is on it.
Wilder: HItler?
Employee: He was a vegetarian.
Wilder: Yes, but , I don’t think that’s what people know him for.
I kinda get Carl’s intent here, but any politician that doesn’t understand that one should never try to encourage what is intended as a positive action by invoking Hitler as an example shouldn’t leave their house in the morning.
I am with A.M on this one. I hear tell Adolph was quite a dancer. It just seems that that whole Aryan Nation thingy might have overshadows what few good qualities he may have had.
jvb
This is the same guy who said he’d like Michelle Obama “to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.” Oh, and that he hopes Barack Obama “catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford.” It gets worse, trust me.
OF COURSE he’s a hero in Trumpistan. He’s an idiot and an asshole. Those seem to be the only criteria.
> It gets worse, trust me.
I’d ask how it gets worse, but I really prefer not to know the answer.
Oh, please do tell! Those remarks were . . . uh . . . fascinating. I simply can’t imagine it getting any worse than that.
jvb
For example: the full quotation about Obama: “Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.”
The rest of it is all standard political rhetoric–I disagree with all of it, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a right to say it. This stuff, though… he actually had time to think about, and seems proud of being an absolute ass.
You mean like the congresswoman who said “impeach the motherfucker?” Please. Yes, he’s an ass, but compared to the Squad he’s nothing new.
Truth be told, it sounds like a lot of the stuff that pops up in the comments sections of Huffpo, youtube, or yahoo. The difference is he isn’t saying it anonymously. Whether that means he should be applauded for being authentic or booed for being that stupid I don’t know.
Utterly ridiculous. That’s not how you catch mad cow disease. This guy should be banned from social media for providing medical misinformation.
Mad Cow Disease isn’t caused by Global Warming…?
No. It’s caused by eating cows infected with mad cow disease. Or, by space aliens contaminating our food supplies because they have exhausted their natural resources and are poisoning humans while planning an interstellar takeover of Earth and its satellites. Or something.
jvb
Of course it is, Paul. It’s something bad, innit? Ergo, it’s caused by climate change, just like all the other Bad Things.
I’m curious about how he backtracked on those comments. Like, say, “I should have said “bonobo,” not “gorilla”…
Back in the late 1970s, our speech and debate teacher would play movies of Hitler’s speeches to illustrate his ability to mesmerize a crowd. We would look at each other in class, shrug our shoulders and doodle in our notebooks. Why? Two simple reasons: (1) Nobody spoke a word of German in our class so we had no idea what the hell he was saying, and (2) our history teacher would show us movies of concentration prisons and the unspeakable suffering in those prisons. We figured that anyone capable of atrocities at that magnitude could not, under any circumstances, be worthy of anything admirable regardless of how well he could work a room.
jvb
Maybe the ASPCA should use Hitler in its promotional materials. He loved dogs, you know.
Good lord, the political class in this country is fucking stupid. You think they’ve hit bottom, then they bust through into another sub-basement with even dumber troglodytes in it. Just stop digging already, I don’t want to know what’s on the level beneath this one.
Meanwhile there are no consequences for the totalitarian bent Justin Trudeau lamenting that he didn’t have the power that the Chinese communist party has. Let’s not forget that there is pretty good evidence that Hitler was a piker compared to the murdering power of the CCP.
“…don’t talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street.”
BBC’s Sherlock