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McCain-Spain, Continued
McCain said in June that Zapatero, the president of Spain, would be welcome at his White House. This bolsters my argument that McCain didn't intend to give Spain the cold shoulder in the Spanish-language radio interview. He simply didn't know what was going on.
Of course, the McCain campaign had to respond to this situation and they couldn't say, "Our candidate misheard the interviewer or misunderstood what was going on, so let's just forget this little senior moment, shall we?" So they claimed that McCain intentionally refused to sit down with Zapatero, who is a socialist:
"The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero (and id'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview," the Senator's foreign policy adviser Randy Sheunemann told the Washington Post.
Okay, that's insane. Lumping Spain — a member of NATO and thus a country we are bound to defend militarily in the event of crisis — in with Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea is clearly crazy. And it's a position, apparently, John McCain didn't endorse as recently as June. So we know what's going on here, right? The campaign put out a self-serving, cover-your-ass statement and John McCain is old but not so militaristic he wants to sever ties with one of our oldest allies. Everyone clear?
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Hmmm. We need a debate between McShame and Pailin.
Didn't Sarah tell Charlie that we must jump without looking to support any NATO member?
I'm confused.
Since McCain went on to talk about Mexico, it is reasonable to infer (and I personally would bet money) that McCain confused Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, who is alive, with the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who died in 1919.
It is less clear whether McCain was recalling personally meeting the historical figure himself, or viewing the Zapata played by Marlon Brando in the 1952 film, "Viva Zapata!"
Randy Sheunemann has just dug a deeper hole after what should have been claimed (as you argued) to be a fairly understandable mistake, if you listen to the interview. But now this is a reflection on McCain's judgment to have a guy like this as a foreign policy advisor.
Actually, I don't think you're too far off the mark there Ken: as speculated on the Guardian blog, it seems likely that he was thinking of Zapatistas.
Jon,
I miss when you would start every article about McCain's tactics with some version of "he is a really good man" but...It was so pollyannish.
This actually touches on the worst part of the administration's scandals these last 8 years. They continually answered "I do not recall" in situations where anyone with an I.Q. greater than 10 could recall. To them it was better to be imcopetent than corrupt (I would argue that a corrupt official would at least be correct twice a day like a broken clock). McCain is saying it is better for him to cause an international crisis than to be hard of hearing. I would take hard of hearing, hearing aids are cheaper than wars.
Coupled with his earlier inability to remember how many homes he owns, sounds like dementia to me.
I can accept that anybody can have trouble hearing a question and answer the wrong question. What this illustrates to me is that McCain and his spokesmen suffer from that bushie inability to ever admit any mistake. No one likes to admit mistakes, but when it's so small and common, yet they still can't admit it, and would rather invent a cockamamie story, that tells us something.
I think this is like saying economic "fundamentals" refers to workers and ingenuity when it's never had that definition before, and everyone knows it. It's amazing how conservatives will spew nonsense they know is phony.
If you are keeping track you will soon figure out that both McCain and Palin keep either contradicting each other or their own statements from few hours to days ago. I understand McCain is old but Palin?????
Listen to the interview. There is no doubt Mc Cain was confused about Spain and kept on speaking as if Zapatero was a Latin American leader. there is ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WItI9It_Swc This man's senility is a danger to our nation
McCain/Palin would be a danger to our nation, even worse than the Bush administration, and you can see what a terrible job they have done.
PEACE and DIPLOMACY are virtues these conservative do not have.
Yes folks,that`s a reflection of McCain`s foreign policy expertise...don`t know much about anything...but ask him about Israel and that guy won`t shut up!
Not knowing who the leader of Spain was or thinking Spain was in Latin America would not really be shocking coming from his running mate "Cheerleader Sarah", another " winner " who knows absolutely little-to-nothing( except perhaps,after some "intense AIPAC-schooling and the traditional,
yet to be scheduled,trip to Israel" for good measures and then the usual blah,blah crap)
But no real surprise here either,just the next loser in succession who could become this nation next president ....which would make this the proverbial "dumb and dumber" Commander-in-chief,indeed...scary times ahead!
new rule: all political candidates must know the leaders of countries which rhyme which their own names.
The things are not so simple in real life.
http://www.redstate.com/diaries/spaniardformccain/2008/sep/20/tha-spanis...
It's a shame that lately American presidents confuse Spain with Mexico, that's what makes people outside the usa think that most Americans are dumb,because they think that they are the center of the world and the don't need to know anything that happens outside the us
In Spain McCain's lapsus has not deserved much tv time, barely a mention, the comments of people or other thing.
" another stupid American who only knows countries that have petroleum "
zapatero is very aware of who the United States presidents is because he's blaming him for the crisis in Spain due to the high petroleum prices.
So i guess McCain will know where Spain is when he will have some disagreement with us.