I agree. With McCain as pres, we can just expect more of these confused, awkward moments. Hopefully they won't lead to anything worse.

It's not as though he got confused about Sunni and Shia ... oh, what, he already did that ? Or pushed to invade the wrong country after 9/11 .. really ? That too ? At least he understands economics - oh, he doesn't ?

But did you know he was a POW ? He's POW reluctant POW to talk about it POW POW but he was a POW POW. And he didn't have an atlas in his POW cell. POW POW. Anyhow, only elitists celebrities with their uppity bottles of Rioja care which hemisphere Spain is in.

Sure, he got confused. But Randy Scheuneman just upped the ante by insisting that McCain knew perfectly well what was going on, and deliberately insulted Spain. So we're not just talking about creeping senility - we're talking about the same habit of never admitting a mistake that's gotten us into so much trouble over the past eight years.

It seems like Kevin Drum's convinced himself that this was a McCain "senior moment" to justify his conclusion that it would be more believable (and cause less blowback) to attack McCain based on his age rather than on his knowledge of foreign policy.

However, McCain has been making many stupid comments similar to this one in the foreign policy context which should lead one to be concerned not only with his age, but also his knowledge (e.g. confusing Sunni and Shia multiple times, referring to President Putin of Germany, confusing the borders of Iran).

There is a new media narrative emerging concerning how McCain may not be the foreign policy expert that he's been anointed by himself and the media. Another media narrative is that he'd have an aggressive foreign policy (e.g. Russia/Georgia, Iran, Venezuela). Still another emerging narrative is that he's a liar and no longer a "straight-talker."

It would be the height of stupidity for the left not to exploit these emerging narratives and paint this McCain Spain gaffe as yet more evidence of McCain's aggressiveness, ignorance, and dishonesty (since McCain signaled in April that we'd have friendly relations with Spain).

I hope Democrats don't follow Kevin Drum's lead and let cowardice concerning potential blowback stop them from fully exploiting this manna from heaven McCain has just given them.

I agree with the poster that it sounded like McCain missed the question, but tried to fake it, and then seemed to get irritated when the interviewer kept repeating the question. By the time he realized that he didn't know what she was talking about, it was too late to have her repeat the question. I don't think that this is a "Senior moment" or a sign of an agressive stance against Spain, but an illustration of a stubborn, defensive and arrogant man.

I guess they all look alike!

Bullshit. If he didn't hear or understand the interviewer he would have asked for clarification and then responded appropriately. The only reason McCain would have answered the way he did is because (as with most things) he has no idea what the current Republican party line is in regards to the question.

Make no mistake about it - McCain is a nice guy, but a tremendous idiot.

Boy, I'm SO glad our free press is concentrating on this most crucial issue of our day, and not wasting our time with questions like what we're going to do regarding the lingering occupation of two foreign nations and a defacto military empire that's helping to bankrupt this nation.

To Critical Issue:

Actually this is a critical issue. This informs us (and the rest of the world) who we're actually dealing with: An a confused yet arrogant older man.

The fact that he's made other foreign policy gaffs just demonstrates how confused he really is. For all his bloviating about FP experience, these little episodes peel away the layers of campaign make-up, providing much more insight into McCain's ability to grasp world affairs and interact with world leaders.

The only foreign policy I want to hear from a candidate is how our government is going to keep it's big nose Out of other nations and their business.

Instead, the discussion we get is how we're going to go about keeping our nose tangled In the business of foreign countries.

I'd have been satsfied if McCain had responded that he didn't know sh!t about who's running Spain, and he didn't need to know.

We're not electing a President of Spain, or an Ambassador TO Spain.

I'd dearly love to hear either one of the DemoPublican candidates for president say they're going to stop trying to run Iraq & Afghanistan, and bring the troops home from all of our Imperial Outposts, but I won't.
I have to go to Barr & Nader to get those statements.

I'll judge the candidates on what they know about the nation they're supposed to SERVE. Not "run", but SERVE.

It appears I'll have to figure it out without much help from our "free press", because they want to talk about what the candidates know about Spain...

Iam not going to push my particular candidate in this comment. This is far to important and frightening.

I have just watched Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow, showing McCain in speechs, interviews etc.

I have spent many years as a Registered Nurse in a state owned GERIATRIC PSYCH HOSPITAL, and it is my opinion that Sen. McCain is NOT capable of either finishing this campaign or worse yet, if elected, finish his presidency. He is definately showing signs of dementia. When you look at his facial affect, strange comments, gaffes, unable to speak without teleprompters or index cards, and rants about fish under the oil rigs, these are NOT normal! If you listen to his telephone interview with the Spanish interviewer, his voice sounds like he was just given his medication and had no idea who he was speaking to or about. Total confusion. I don't believe it is just his age, or his POW history. I don't believe he is in his own control, and is being run by others. Also, if you watch Cindy McCain when she stands behind him, she looks like she's praying he doesn't fall over!

I wish someone would get together a panel of neurologists, psycholgists, psychiatrists and geriatric physicians to assess this man. Sen. McCain will not release his medical records, and this is also scary.
He is not putting his country first by having an inexperienced VP candidate to run the most powerful country in the world.
PLEASE, SOMEONE DO SOMETHING BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

"Is any voter really going to believe that a 20+ year Senator doesn't know where Spain is?"

they might if they also knew that he thinks countries that haven't existed for more than 15 years are our allies.