Phil Reisman: Astorino TV —'Honey, I Pulled the Kids'

You may have been primed for the season's finale of "How I Met Your Mother," but the hottest thing in politics right now is Astorino TV, starring Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino.

The eighth and perhaps most watched episode of the Astorino TV series was released Monday on the underdog candidate's campaign website. An apt title could've been "Honey, I Pulled the Kids."

In the latest four-minute installment, Astorino assailed the state's Common Core standards, a bureaucratic nightmare that has set fire to the hair of teachers, students and their parents from the Bronx to Buffalo.

New York's children, Astorino said, were being used as "Guinea pigs in one of the most untested education experiments in U.S. history."

The villainous mad scientist, he asserted, was the incumbent governor, Andrew Cuomo, who in reality had nothing to do with the creation or adoption of the education overhaul and who has already stated on the record that Common Core is "flawed." But let's face it, the alliterative flair of "Cuomo's Common Core" is irresistible — especially when you're behind in the polls. After all, there's little to gain if Astorino merely assigns blame to the faceless state Board of Regents whose members are appointed by the state Legislature. His aim is to tar the guy he's running against. Indeed, before he's through with this hot-button issue, he'll have some people believing that Cuomo personally graded the Common Core exams.

That's politics, folks.

As an act of protest, Astorino said he and his wife, Sheila, a special education teacher, will not let their own school-aged children take the dreaded test that is scheduled for Tuesday, which happens to be April Fools' Day.

"I am announcing today that my children will join with thousands of other school kids … statewide, in refusing to take the Cuomo Common Core test," he said, gazing into the camera. "They will be in school, but they will opt out of the exams, as is their legal right."

Technically speaking, Astorino TV isn't really on television, but it hardly matters. In this age of hyperactive media on all platforms, there really isn't any such thing as TV anymore. TV was a new thing when Estes Kefauver campaigned for president in a coonskin cap, when people fiddled with rabbit ears.

Today, it's all about the retweet. Astorino's Web pronouncement on Common Core certainly lit up the Twittersphere.

Pulling his kids out of class is nothing more than symbolic, but it undoubtedly got the attention of parents who vote. And then there is a wellspring of potential voters out there from which Astorino can tap for support, as evidenced by the 51,000 Facebook recommendations on the anti-Common Core website, "Fix New York Schools."

Though he struggles with accuracy in attacking Cuomo — and that's putting it mildly — he isn't off the mark when he says that Common Core will ultimately remove local control from the education system. At the same time, he's right when he says higher standards and improved performance are needed in the schools.

Critics will fault Astorino for using his children as political props. At one point he mentions "countless nights" at the kitchen table "with our children who were frustrated to tears by math methods that left us all scratching our heads."

And yet, right or wrong, that was probably the most effective element of the Astorino TV production. This is nothing new. In his last successful run for Westchester County executive, Astorino often played "the kid card," by exhibiting his family in happy domestic scenes.

Astorino TV is all about stagecraft. He sits behind a desk with his children's crayoned artwork clearly visible in the background.

Interestingly, somebody in his campaign must have wisely told him to get rid of the distracting tchotchkes from the first Astorino TV edition, which included a spider plant and a weird sign that said, "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP." Another sign had writing so tiny that some speculated it contained a cryptic message along the lines of "I buried Paul." Or perhaps it said, "If you can read this sign, you're tailgating."

But the kid stuff survived.

That's the Astorino brand: He may be running for governor, but he's already best dad. Can't wait for the season's finale.

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com.

Twitter: @philreisman

On lohud.com

Catch 'The Phil Reisman Show' live on Thursdays

at 12:30 p.m. only on our

website, lohud.com