In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl P. Paladino today said he's not accusing Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo of having had an extramarital affair. 
  
 Paladino, speaking from his Buffalo office, said he has been subjected to so many questions about his personal life that he recently questioned whether the media, in fairness, is also posing personal questions to Cuomo. 
  
 However, Paladino said, he wasn't accusing Cuomo of having an extramarital affair. 
  
 "I'm sick and tired of people asking me about if I've had affairs," Paladino said. "I was talking to [a reporter with Politico.com] and said 'Why don't you ask Andrew Cuomo if he has had extramarital affairs. It's not that I was accusing him." 
  
 In addition, Paladino misspoke Wednesday night when telling a New York Post reporter that he would provide proof of a Cuomo affair "at the appropriate time," Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo said today. 
  
 Paladino misunderstood the question he was being asked by New York Post reporter Fred U. Dicker, and the context of the question, Caputo said. 
  
 Dicker was very "in your face" and poking Paladino, Caputo said. Dicker, he said, was asking Paladino questions about an interview that appeared in Politico.com that Paladino had not seen. 
  
 In addition, Caputo noted, Dicker is the Post staffer that Paladino has accused of sending a reporter to the home of his 10-year-old daughter, trying to take pictures of the child through a window. 
  
 In an interview with Politico.com posted Wednesday, Paladino is quoted as saying: "Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours?" And Caputo is quoted as chiming in with: "When he was married." 
  
 Paladino continued, "When he was married -- or asked him why his wife left him or threw him out of the house? Has anybody ever done that? What are they doing intruding on my life?" 
  
 Paladino had made similar comments in the past to Newsday, the Long Island newspaper. 
  
 "Do we know what caused Cuomo to break up with his wife? Do we know?Why isn't somebody asking that?" Paladino had said to Newsday. "These arethe questions the public wants to know. Let's vet him, vet him veryvery carefully." 
  
 Wednesday evening, at a campaign event in Lake George, Dicker, from the Post, asked Paladino if he had evidence supporting his allegation that Cuomo had an affair when he was married to Kerry Kennedy. 
  
 "Of course, I do," Paladino snapped. "You'll get it at the appropriate time." 
  
 The confrontation between Paladino and Dicker then continued, featuring shouting, pushing and campaign aides hustling Paladino into a bathroom to escape the scene. 
  
 "I want to know why you sent goons after my daughter," Paladino shouted at Dicker, referring to photographers at the home of his young daughter. 
  
 At another point, Paladino told Dicker he would "take him out." 
  
 Paladino today said the comment was not a threat, but rather a continuation of a campaign theme. 
  
 Throughout the campaign, Paladino said, a theme has been: "I'm going to take out the governor. I'm going to take out Sheldon Silver. I'm going to take out the trash." 
  
 While the Cuomo campaign declined comment, the political world was abuzz as insiders debated whether the confrontation would hurt or help Paladino's campaign. Will it depict Paladino as someone who comes unglued in the heat of the moment or as someone willing to stand up to the press -- an industry that has its public relations issues, especially with Paladino's base of support among conservatives? 
  
 One supporter said voters will see the incident as involving an unconventional candidate living up to his convictions and take-no-prisoners style. "He's absolutely standing up for what he believes in," said Nick Langworthy, the Erie County GOP chairman. "He believed Fred Dicker and the New York Post put his daughter in harm's way and he didn't back down." 
  
 But others noted the outburst came at a time when Democrats have been trying to build up a public image of Paladino as "unfit" for the important office of governor. "Of course it will sell with some voters," said Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College. "But who are those voters and what are their numbers?" 
  
 "I think a larger number of people are saying, 'This guy in an hour smeared a gubernatorial candidate without evidence and then threatened a member of the press," Muzzio said. 
  
 sschulman@buffnews.comnull ||||| Carl Paladino now admits he really doesn't have any proof of Andrew Cuomo's 'paramours' 
  
 Gifter for News; Maisel/News Numerous insiders called it 'hypocritical' for Carl Paladino to tar Andrew Cuomo. 
  
 ALBANY - Flame-throwing Carl Paladino on Thursday backed down from his unsubstantiated claim that Democratic foe Andrew Cuomo cheated on his wife. 
  
 Paladino told the Buffalo News he never intended to make the allegation, but was simply frustrated by attention on his own personal life. 
  
 "I'm sick and tired of people asking me about if I've had affairs," said Paladino, who had an extramarital affair that resulted in a now 10-year-old love child. 
  
 "I was talking to [Politico.com] and said 'why don't you ask Andrew Cuomo if he has had extramartial affairs," he told the paper. "It's not that I was accusing him." 
  
 The controversy erupted Wednesday just hours after Tea Party darling Paladino promised the ugly campaign would get even nastier. Paladino quickly sunk the campaign to a new low, complaining to Politico that the media was too focused on his extramarital affair. 
  
 "Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours?" during his 13-year marriage to Kerry Kennedy, Paladino railed without offering proof. 
  
 At the time of Cuomo's 2003 divorce, it was reported Kennedy had an affair with socialite Bruce Colley. 
  
 No reports pegged Cuomo as a cheater. 
  
 Pressed on the issue Wednesday night, Paladino erupted at a reporter and vowed to provide evidence "at the appropriate time." 
  
 Thursday, Paladino told Buffalo's WBEN-AM he did not mean to imply he had evidence, saying he misunderstood the question. 
  
 Hours before his reversal, however, Paladino did an interview with YNN's "Capital Tonight" where he not only didn't backtrack, but promised more dirt. 
  
 "Andrew Cuomo has to account for ... his past," he said. "I will assure you this is just the beginning of what I will vet on Andrew Cuomo." 
  
 A Cuomo spokesman had no comment. On Wednesday, the campaign said it would not get in the "gutter" with Paladino. 
  
 Paladino's accusation had fellow Republicans and Conservatives feeling he went too far. 
  
 "Do I agree with Carl going after Cuomo's family? No I don't," said Michael Long, head of the state Conservative Party. "Families should be left out of the picture." 
  
 Numerous insiders called it "hypocritical" for Paladino to tar Cuomo, who has three daughters, with an unsubstantiated infidelity charge while warning Cuomo and the media to keep his family out of the race. 
  
 Veteran GOP political consultant Ed Rollins called Paladino's attack "outrageous" and said he can't remember when a candidate dipped so low. 
  
 "I would discourage any candidate that I had from even going there," he said. 
  
 "It's down and dirty. [Michael Vick] in his days of dogfighting would be proud of this one." 
  
 klovett@nydailynews.com |||||
A: 
So, remember when Carl Paladino accused his rival, Andrew Cuomo, of having an affair? Yeah, he didn't really mean that. Yesterday, he retracted the claim, saying it was all just a big misunderstanding, reports the Buffalo News. Paladino says he was just so "sick and tired" of the affair questions lobbed his way that he asked a reporter if the press had asked the same questions of Cuomo. "It's not that I was accusing him," he said, though he did tell jostled New York Post reporter Fred Dicker that he would supply proof "at the appropriate time." "Misunderstanding" or not, Paladino's claim about Cuomo seems to be baseless, notes the New York Daily News. Paladino asked reporters if anybody had investigated his rival's "paramours" during his 13-year marriage to Kerry Kennedy (daughter of Robert F. Kennedy). But, the News notes, it was Kennedy, not Cuomo, whose cheating was linked to their 2003 divorce. There is no evidence, so far, of an Andrew Cuomo affair. Click here to follow the Paladino-Cuomo battle.