GOP candidate for governor: Obama worships himself

ALBANY - Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino said yesterday during a live television interview that he doesn't believe President Barack Obama is a practicing Christian "in his heart."

"I think he worships himself," Paladino told YNN's "Capital Tonight" news program.

"I'm not saying he's anything else, but I think Mr. Obama is about himself," the millionaire Buffalo developer said. "I think any religious beliefs that he advocates are part of the theater to make himself look better to the American people." When asked whether he believed Obama was a Christian, Paladino said, "No, not in his heart."

The comments come as Obama is again countering claims that he is a Muslim.

A Quinnipiac University poll issued yesterday shows Obama has hit his lowest approval rating among New Yorkers. It shows just 51 percent of voters in a state dominated by Democrats approve of his performance. Among Republicans, 80 percent disapprove. Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll said Paladino's comments probably played well with Republicans, especially those most likely to vote in the primary in two weeks.

Paladino has answered criticism of his past controversial comments by saying he's a straight talker and not a career politician, which he says is what New York State government needs after years of corruption, overtaxing and overspending on special interests.

He has said he would stop a proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque a couple of blocks from Ground Zero by using eminent domain to seize the site and develop it as a memorial to those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He said building a mosque near Ground Zero would be like erecting a monument to the Japanese navy at Pearl Harbor, site of the World War II attack.

Paladino's spokesman, Michael Caputo, said after the interview that Paladino stands by the remarks and that he has little regard for Obama and for "what he's doing to this country."