18 September 2008

Does John McCain know where Spain is?

Of course not; he can't see it from any of his houses. 

You may have forgotten about John McCain, who's still technically running for president as the titular head of the Republican ticket.  He may want you to forget for a few days more, after a baffling interview he gave to a Spanish radio presenter in which he seems to conflate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero with other Latin American left-wing leaders, and says he won't meet with Zapatero even after the interviewer reminds McCain that he's the prime minister of Spain.  

 McCain's campaign is apparently claiming he fully intended to snub Zapatero, whose social democrats came to power when the Spanish public ejected the previous right-wing government for its support of the Iraq war.  Perhaps they're right, and Spain is becoming the new France in American wingnut circles.  More likely McCain just can't keep track of all the things he's supposed to say anymore.  The interview also aired on a Miami radio station, and McCain was probably told to spare no quarter in denouncing the Latin left.  Then he drew a blank when he tried to remember if Zapatero was included, and decided to take the safe way out rather than risk angering the right-wing refugees in South Florida.