carl paladino who was an art project about how nuts you could be while still running for office, carlhe bestiality e-mails guy, who sent out a political mailer spiked with a trash smell, carl paladino beat him in the republican primary by 24 points. new york state did not figure out carl paladino was an art project until they already had him as the republican nominee for governor. now we have herman cain. polls indicate right now that nothing that herman cain is doing is hurting his poll numbers among republicans at all. the cumulative effect of all of this stuff i think means we are now going to collectively sort of turn the telescope the other way around and recognize what this has all been about. honestly, many liberals are praying republicans don't turn the telescope around and don't figure out this joke, that this art project goes all the way. whether or not that's possible, we leave to the administrations of my friend eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst. gene, am i throwing a hot potato into your lap here? >> ra