There’s been a lot of snark about John McCain doing an interview with a reporter from the Spanish (as in, from Spain) newspaper El Pais, and seemingly getting confused over what continent Spain is on, and whether he’d be willing to meet with Spain’s President Zapatero. McCain answered non-comittally that he’d be willing to work with “leaders who are our friends…in the hemisphere” and some stuff about Latin America and drug cartels, even as the reporter attempted to clarify that they were talking about Spain, but McCain wouldn’t budge (text via Americablog):
QUESTION: Okay… what about you, I’m talking about the President of Spain?
MCCAIN: What about me what?
QUESTION: Okay… are you willing to meet with him if you are elected president?
MCCAIN: I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights, democracy and freedom, and I will stand up to those that do not.
McCain’s neo-con handler Randy Scheunemann has come out saying that McCain wasn’t disoriented in the interview, just that he’s a hard-liner. That, of course, confuses people, because Spain does have troops in Afghanistan, as well as being a member of NATO.
But I suspect that what most people have forgotten is a little something called the Spanish-American War. But John McCain hasn’t, because he’s so old he remembers it like it was yesterday.