I am very curious to know what you all think of this video of New York Governor David Paterson mocking the wheelchair users who appeared in an SEIU ad using pathos to attack his health care cuts, specifically the ones affecting nursing homes. Paterson, who is blind, raised a fuss back in December when Saturday Night Live spoofed him in a skit that portrayed him as a bumbling, inept politician – playing heavily on his blindness.

Now, true, the SNL skit, (which made me laugh), does blatantly connect Paterson’s blindness with what is widely seen as many as his inability to handle the spokesperson part of his duties as governor … but what makes SNL’s blindness-based spoof any different than Paterson’s wheelchair-based spoof?

One could argue that the difference is Paterson mocks the way people with disabilities are portrayed in the media -- how our impairments are often used to pull heart strings, playing on widespread societal assumptions that our lives are pitiable. And SNL crossed the line since its skit on the surface seems to just uncritically play on disability stereotypes for a laugh. I could buy that, I guess, but one could also argue that SNL treated Paterson equally to all the others the show spoofed, often exploiting stereotypes. Think sexism, Palin and Clinton.

Speaking of equal treatment, did you catch New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s irritation directed toward a wheelchair-using reporter during a press conference unveiling New York’s same sex marriage bill? A fellow reporter bumped Michael A. Harris’ tape recorder, which then flipped on, and Harris was unable to turn it off again for a full minute. Some say Bloomberg shouldn’t have lost it on a wheelchair-using reporter, but others say, hell, why not, he loses it on everyone else … this is equal treatment in the big leagues. 

Paterson erred, I think, in not being funny enough to pull off the satire. It's difficult to tell, the audio being less than perfect and the audience laughter seemingly forced. My problem with the Bloomberg incident is that the reporter should have recognized the mayor was being a pretentious boor and said something akin to "Hey, I'm moving as fast as I can here! Hold your horses." But I understand. I always remember the right thing to say 24 hours post-incident. Gary www.garypresley.com

(Paterson said Monday his portrayal, performed by actor Fred Armisen, amounted to a "third-grade depiction of individuals.") Seems he can dish it out, but can't take it. This guy is supposed to be a political leader? More like an overgrown man-child. He likes to BE the bully, but when the joke is on him, he wants to run to mommy...