by Nicholas | The tally of things Mr Experience seems to be confused about is mounting up. As BBC News put it, "US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has raised
suspicions in Spain that he thinks the country's prime minister is
Latin American."
Else he was posturing in a manner guaranteed to offend a NATO
ally---which seems to be his campaign's spin on the matter. In any
event, Spain is 'puzzled." (BBC News)
Speculation is rife about the intention behind these remarks. Did he get Zapatero mixed up with some other bloke---or affiliation of blokes? Or is this another of his recent reversals as he tacks to the right?
Searching for an alternative explanation, some Spanish commentators have suggested Mr McCain may not have forgiven Mr Zapatero for pulling Spanish troops out of Iraq when he became prime minister in 2004. (BBC News)
Of course, it's possible he was just confused and his campaign can't afford to admit it.
Questions about whether McCain forgot which country Zapatero leads, got confused about Spain's geographic relationship to Latin America, or confused Zapatero with the Zapatista rebels from Mexico have exploded on blogs since reports of the interview first surfaced. (The Trail)
The Spanish press was divided about what it meant.
El Pais favoured the interpretation that Mr McCain knew who Mr Zapatero was, and was deliberately signalling his displeasure with the prime minister's decision to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2004.
"McCain was asked four times and four times he avoided committing to a meeting with Zapatero," wrote the newspaper.
That would be a big change from April, it said, when the candidate told a reporter "it is the moment to leave behind discrepancies with Spain".
El Semanal Digital, an online newspaper, was dismayed by the interview.
"He did not even mention Zapatero's name" it wrote. (BBC News)
Who the hell knows what McCain means anymore? It's like trying to work out what Bush means.
McCain's foreign policy advisor says his answer was intentional and that he understood the question and meant what he said. Somehow or other the following is supposed to show up Obama as a reckless neophyte:
"In this week's interview, Senator McCain did not rule in or rule out a White House meeting with President Zapatero, a NATO ally," he said in an e-mail. "If elected, he will meet with a wide range of allies in a wide variety of venues but is not going to spell out scheduling and meeting location specifics in advance. He also is not going to make reckless promises to meet America's adversaries. It's called keeping your options open, unlike Senator Obama, who has publicly committed to meeting some of the world's worst dictators unconditionally in his first year in office." (The Trail)
Biden and Obama didn't comment. One of Obama's campaign staff did.
Tony Blinken, a longtime foreign policy aide to Sen. Joe Biden...., said in a phone call on Thursday evening that it was unfortunate that McCain would "preemptively poison the well" with a NATO ally.
Worse still, Blinken said, would be if the McCain campaign were adopting a new, hardline policy toward Spain just to cover up a gaffe. (The Trail; emphasis added)
Crooks and Liars comments:
How embarrassing…nothing like another President determined to make us the global laughingstock.....[G]iven how completely out of left field his responses are (also not a unique experience when questioning McCain), I think it’s completely appropriate to wonder if John McCain is in any condition to hold any office representing this country.
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Ah, so this is where you hide Nicholas the Ironic Brit. Too cool. And McCain... Gah. Do not get me started. He's old and dumb. Nuff said.
Posted by: Winter | September 22, 2008 at 09:22 PM