The liberal blogosphere is freaking out about comments made by top Trump NY surrogate and former gubernatorial candidate over allegations that he used a racial slur when referring to Barack Obama. The specific allegation is that he called Obama a raccoon, which of course would have been a huge no-no.

Now look, Paladino is not and has never been known for having, uh, message discipline. This particular accusation sticks because Paladino has had a somewhat checkered past with respect to accusations of, shall we say, racially careless messaging.

The actual context of Paladino’s remarks, on the other hand, makes this one a little more doubtful. Here is a transcript:

NPR: I want to give you a chance to respond to the criticism that he has been using so-called scare tactics. Give me something substantive that you feel you could tell New York voters, that, here’s a proposal…

Paladino: The press has to get over that, okay? If you’re looking for, or you’re looking to find a flaw, a gaffe, you’re going to find it, in anybody. The essence of the man is that he’s speaking to the people and he speaks directly to them and he engages them. People who get onto this bus, on the Trump bus, are people that are very, very frustrated with their government as it’s been. That’s the most important thing. It doesn’t matter who the person is, the exterminator, okay, they want the raccoons out of the basement.

Eh. In the first place, it’s not even clear that he’s referring to Obama. He’s referring to the government as a whole. This, frankly, has been vastly oversold as a mistake on Paladino’s part.

Frankly, Trump and his odious surrogates, who are pretty much universally garbage human beings, are going to make plenty of mistakes without the media inventing some for them.