A More Generous Interpretation of the McCain-Spain Gaffe

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


If you haven’t heard about the McCain-Spain snafu, highlighted by Talking Points Memo overnight, here’s a quick rundown. My take on the whole thing follows.

McCain did an interview with a Spanish-language radio station. He was asked about a series of Latin American troublemakers, in response to which McCain gave the standard conservative boilerplate about standing up to those that oppose liberty, freedom, etc. The interviewer then asks about Spain and President/Prime Minister Zapatero. McCain appears confused by the question or unclear on who Zapatero is and covers by providing more boilerplate about Latin America. He never embraces Spain as an ally, possibly because he doesn’t know the questions are about Spain.

At this TPM post, you can hear the interview in English and evaluate for yourself.

Some in the media are already jumping on McCain. I’m more charitable. I don’t think McCain can’t identify Spain’s correct hemisphere. I don’t think McCain is uncertain about Spain’s status as an ally. I don’t think McCain is unaware of Spain’s leader. Honestly? I think he didn’t hear the interviewer, who was talking quickly and with an accent, when she transitioned to Spain. And after he missed the transition he got confused and either misheard or misunderstood the rest of what was going on.

I think this whole thing is a symptom of McCain’s age.

And to be frank, I think it would work better as an attack on McCain if it was framed that way. Is any voter really going to believe that a 20+ year Senator doesn’t know where Spain is? They’re likely to dismiss that as the (over)zealotry of the liberal media. Questions about age and fitness are much more believable.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate