Every day, McCain inches closer to the "health crisis" which will force his "reluctant" withdrawal from the race.

McCain is probably harkening back to his days pursuing Pancho Villa with Gen. Pershing, and confusing Zapatero with Zapata, the notorious revolutionary, borderline communist, and confidant of Villa. Thus, his desire to throw Zapatero in the clink, is totally understandable. In fact, I blame the interviewer. He should have reminded McCain that they were talking about the early 21st Century, not the early 20th.

I've said this repeatedly over the last few months. John McCain has Alzheimer's and it is that much worse than Ronald Reagan's at this stage. He is not at all there mentally. Making one, two, maybe three gaffes is a mistake, but doing it daily on multiple subjects is a medical and mental issue. McCain has the onset of Alzheimer's. Ask a doctor and see what they think....

Someone tell McGrump, the beer is for distribution not for comsumption.

This is similar to Bush speaking to the Italian Prime Minister in Spanish !!!

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/10/bush-addresses-the-italian-prime-minister-in-spanish-amigo-amigo/

Maybe he was thinking about Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican peasant who overthrew the right wing dictator, Porfirio Diaz, in 1910. His followers would have been called zapateros. McCain's political philosophy would have been much closer to Diaz's. And we know McCain hates losing wars, even if it takes 100 years to win them.

Oh, this won't cost him in Miami?

I think it will.

I suspect the line from U.S. political reporters will be the same as their response to Palin's "Bush Doctrine" flap -- this won't matter because most Americans may not realize that Spain is in Europe, and the typical voter doesn't know who Zapatero is, either.

Most Americans may not know it, but the President darn well ought to (and certainly ought not to be confused to the point of making belligerent statements about an ally).

This sorry incident is yet another in a string of what ought to be campaign-ending gaffes for McCain. I know dishonest Republican apologists -- but I repeat myself -- are forced to argue it doesn't matter, but that's bullshit.

And as for the press' attitude, if a reporter went into an interview with Zapatero and conducted it as if he or she thought the man led a Latin American country, he or she ought tobe fired. We don't expect much professionalism out of the press any more -- nice going there, guys! -- but we ought to hold the President to a higher standard, and they should too.

Yeesh!

Hey, if you're GOP, foreigners are fungible. It's especially true when they come from places that begin with "I", or "A",, but those are particular applications of a general principle.

Someone should teach McCain how to Google .

Startling news this morning, President McCain has nuked Spain. Asked to comment many Americans shrugged. "I don't have the money for a trip to Asia this year so what do I care?" "Those Spain type people pissed me off when they shot down our helicopter in Africa. Remember, Black Hawk Down? They deserved it!" "I don't eat olives." "Oh damn, they were going to shoot "Survivor" there next season!"
In other news the wrestling match between Sarah Palin and a moose has been moved from Tuesday to Friday night. Pay-Per-View only, checks payable to RNC.

Nothing shows the sickness of our political culture and political "journalism" better than the conspiracy of silence over the OBVIOUS fact that this man is already too mentally incapacitated to serve as President- a silence that continues even AFTER he chose a running mate almost universally acknowledged to be unqualified and unready. I thought I knew how low this once-great country had sunk, but apparently even I wasn't sufficiently cynical and pessimistic.

I shudder to think of what kind of administration this bozo would assemble. Judging by the campaign team he's assembled:

McCain does not speak for the campaign.
Palin does not speak for herself.
Palin, a 75 year old heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world, was not vetted in the slightest.
The campaign is run by lobbyists at worst, cozy with them at best. Some of them, such as Phil Gramm are directly responsible for our present economic meltdown. Yet they insist the fundamentals of our economy are strong - People should just stop whining.

McCain doesn't seem to have an inkling of geography - Where countries and borders are located, what countries are still in existence, etc. This seems especially true of the Middle East, where he claims his strongest security credentials.

I've racked my brain for reasons why someone could rationally support this level of incompetent 'experience'. I've only arrived at 2 - which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: Party over country. Racism.

"I've only arrived at 2 - which are not necessarily mutually exclusive: Party over country. Racism."

Posted by: JoeW
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C'mon Joe, everyone knows all our troubles began when we started shooting satellites into space. Ask McCain, he'll tell you.

I suspect the line from U.S. political reporters will be the same as their response to Palin's "Bush Doctrine" flap -- this won't matter because most Americans may not realize that Spain is in Europe, and the typical voter doesn't know who Zapatero is, either.

The application of the least common denominator to the highest common office.

Or to rephrase: The dumbing-down of the two highest offices in the land.

After 232 years, how did we come to this?

I'm not sure if he's senile, but I do think he's been drinking water from the wing nut baptismal pool. He's drunk on the blood of the Limbaugh lamb and that can only lead to incoherent ramblings.

I remember the McCain of 2000. He was no genius to be sure, but he most certainly was not the shambling, word-slurring wreck we see now.

I have to wonder why McShame didn't just answer the interviewer with his campaign's NEW TALKING POINT response to questions about their knowledge or opinion on all things..."ENERGY"!!!!

Perhaps he just has a "verbage" problem which is "impactful" to his "misspeaking".

"Yup! Yup!" that must be it.

I think he was doing a Palin. He didn't know the answer, so he treated it like she did the Bush Doctrine. "Which Prime Minister Zapatero are you talking about, Charo?"

I'm with Cojonudo, above. I think it's possible McCain is in early stage Alzheimer's. I went through this with my mother, and McCain's behavior is strikingly similar.

In the very early stages, before the diagnosis, she was fine in social situations and had no trouble recognizing people and engaging in a lucid conversation. She even retained some complex medical knowledge (she was an RN and had taught nursing for many years) into more advanced stages. It was new information that gave her trouble. She began to fake her way around things she didn't understand. McCain seems to be following a similar pattern.

Only yesterday Palin said;"“I’ll be ready, I have that confidence. If you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead and you can ask me, you can even play ’stump the candidate’ if you want to, but we are ready to serve.�

As long as serving doesn't involve geography or the economy.

Oh come on. Who doesn't know Spain is in Europe? I mean, people can be pretty stupid, that's pretty basic geography. I'd expect people to at least know it was IN Europe, if not actually where (even though it's right there at the very edge of the continent!) But not knowing it's in Europe at all? It's like not knowing England is in Europe.

There was a petition mentioned at one point about making McCain do an Alzheimer's test. I believe it was a joke, but more and more it may need to be seriously considered. This idiot does not have what it takes to be President, and Sarah "I can see Russia from my house!" Palin definitely doesn't either.

Spain? Who cares? Not they're in NATO anyway--they're in some thing called OTAN.

(Pace, Whit Stillman.)

Dennis - SGMM, did you notice the question that was in response to? Basically, a woman asked Palin to respond to concerns that she has a serious lack of foreign policy experience and asked Palin to provide examples of specific skills she would bring to the White House that rebut or mitigate those concerns.

Palin's response? No specifics, except that she's confident. And then she basically pleads for folks to quiz her on specific issues. Nice. Apparently, a McCain/Palin foreign policy will be based on one thing: confidence. How'd that work out for us these last 8 years?

This is a major gaffe. Spain is an important member of the European Union. I am sure he was briefed about the interview before it started. A few years ago Spain suffered its own serious terrorist attack. McCain claims to be a foreign policy expert. He has heard of the Spanish prime minister.

This gaffe seems to reflect something more serious. Maybe something about McCain's heath. Has he had a mild stroke? It has been over a month since he did a real give and take interview. Cindy is always behind him when he speaks. (Remember Nancy Reagan in those last years?) Lately he has been letting Sarah Palin do the heavy lifting at town hall events.

"I suspect the line from U.S. political reporters will be the same as their response to Palin's "Bush Doctrine" flap -- this won't matter"

I really have to disagree here. I think that blank-eyed, rambling moment in Palin's interview is what caused Palin-mania to beging to crumble. It was reported on everywhere, and nearly all of it negatively.

"I've said this repeatedly over the last few months. John McCain has Alzheimer's"

I've said for awhile now that he acts like he's had a stroke. Stroke or early Alzheimer's, who knows, but he certainly acts like he's functioning at a diminished capacity.

Allof his gaffes won't matter at all to Republicans, but undecided and independant voters will be far more critical.

Dennis -- SGMM,
"[Y]ou can even play ’stump the candidate’ if you want to, but we are ready to serve."

Oh, this is very reassuring. How broad-minded of her to humour us in our little game of trying to survive as a nation.

Actually, Zapatero was the Socialist Party guy who took power and pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq when their trains were bombed and proceeded to say a lot of anti-US things. He also tried to interfere in US politics by endorsing John Kerry.

Its not unreasonable to refuse to meet him. As I understand it Bush has not met with him one on one and only Sec state has.

"Puh...puh...pero yo soy POW!!!"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/50379/page/2

Someone in this article - it say's Bush blacklisted Zapatero for head of state to head of state contact for his support of Hugo Chavez.

McAristotle, I understand where you are coming from, but instead of responding with a diplomatic "no" the reports I have read suggest that McCain gave the reporter a generic answer indicating he believes Spain is part of Latin America. Spain is next door to France, not Panama.

McAristotle, I have no doubt Bush blacklisted Zapatero for talking to Chavez. That was stupid of Bush, but in this instance McCain didn't say he was going to continue with Bush's lunacy. He just wandered off.

Don't bother feeding the McAsshole troll. It's just a conduit for undigested (and desperate) talking points.

Perhaps McCain got him mixed up with the Zapatistas in Mexico, the insurgent group that operated in Chiapas province in the 1980s and 1990s. Not a good sign, though. He is either deliberately rude, ignorant or going gaga.

This is more than a gaffe.

When combined with a lot of other recent strange behavior, we must consider whether John McCain is suffering from some form of dementia.

McCain did finish almost last in his class at Navy. He doesn't think he needs to study and he's not smart enough to pull it off. Sound familiar?

A poem I learned as a child:
He who knows and knows he knows; he is wise, follow him.
He who knows and knows not he knows; he is asleep, awaken him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not; he is simple, teach him.
He who knows not and knows not he knows not; he is a fool, shun him.
McCain/Palin know not but have confidence. Heaven help us if these two are elected.

Actually, there is no president of Spain, it is a kingdom, and the were taking about the prime minister, not a president. I strongly doubth that the Spanish journalist made that mistake, it is likely to have sneaked in later during translation. It must be slightly embarrassing to point out the error McCain did, and then mix up a prime minister with a president.

Spain is next to Czechoslovakia, isn't it?

Just as John McCain is so honorable that he doesn't need to tell the truth, so has he got so much foreign-policy experience that he doesn't need to actually know anything.

And, no, this isn't dementia. It's delusion. McCain has the delusional notion that he's qualified to be president.

This is almost as amusing as the incident when Quayle said he wished he had taken Latin in school, so he could relate better to Latin America.

Anders, you're wrong. The Spanish Prime Minister has the official title "President of the Governing Council" and is in fact often referred to as "El Presidente".

Its not unreasonable to refuse to meet him.

You might make the argument that it is reasonable to refuse to talk directly to Iran, but Spain? Isn't that more than a little petty? I mean, like third grade petty?

When your foreign policy is pretty much like bush's -- namely, we'll attack anyone we don't like, who the hell needs to know where nations are or who their leaders are? USA USA USA

"I suspect the line from U.S. political reporters will be the same as their response to Palin's "Bush Doctrine" flap -- this won't matter because most Americans may not realize that Spain is in Europe, and the typical voter doesn't know who Zapatero is, either."

The fact that we must treat this statement seriously and not as a joke scares and depresses me. I'm going back to bed now.

Fine if "most Americans" don't know where Spain is. Isn't our President supposed to be smarter than "most Americans"?

Apparently McAce was confusing Zaperato with the legendary "agent of Change" the Mexican, Emiliano Zapato who he fought with and invented the slogan to celebrate his glory: Viva Zapato!

I realize that this is a little now fact, but he also designed Zapato's shoes and peasant clothing and was known to shine his pistolas often lamenting that Zapato wasn't a sailor...

memoiirgirl said:
'Fine if "most Americans" don't know where Spain is. Isn't our President supposed to be smarter than "most Americans"? '

Now you are being elitist :)

Isn't our President supposed to be smarter than "most Americans"?

Hell, no. I don't just want a President I can sit down and have a beer with: I want a President who's dumb enough to BUY me a beer.

It could be that Palin has made McCain's remaining blood rush to his lap.

Unfortunately, Americans as a whole couldn't care less about the opinion of the rest of the world. The fact that the entire world thinks of you as a bully or a buffoon probably counts as a badge of honor with many Americans.

Really? It just seems to me that he didn't want to meet with Zapatero (if anyone knows what does and what does not work to deal with Islamic issues and terrorism it's Spain) because he defeated Bush ally Aznar.

In other words, because Zapatero was a victorious liberal he is part of old Europe, irrelevant.

I think they may care about a senile guy with his finger on the red button, though.

Zapatero, who is a member of NATO and technically an ally called on other NATO countries to pull out of Iraq and leave the US fighting alone.

I though you guys cared about the troops?

Please McCain is one of the more experienced members of the Senate on foreign policy. He was reminded Zapatero was PM of Spain and he stood by his statement. I think he meant what he said.

So Obama supports the right of allies to call for other allies to break commitments and leave US troops fighting alone?

Nice to know.

Senator McCain just dissed big-time a prominent, former member of the Coalition of the Willing and a country victimized by terrorism. He had an opportunity to thank Spain for their service in Iraq, look for ways to cooperate in the future, etc., and instead he chose to link Zapatero with America's enemies. Breathtaking.

McCain certainly knows where Spain is -- he crashed one of his Navy planes there. This diss was a deliberate attempt to insult the Spanish PM for withdrawing troops from Iraq. It shows that when it comes to foreign policy McCain wears an ideological straightjacket.

One other possibility -- equally egregious -- is that McCain confused Zapatero with the Zapatista separatists in southern Mexico. During the Spanish questioning he mentioned the Mexican president's struggle against the drug cartels.

New nickname for McCain: Son of Flubber (Bush was Flubber).

Its not unreasonable to refuse to meet him. As I understand it Bush has not met with him one on one and only Sec state has.

Irony alert: "McAristotle" points to George Bush to support his example that conduct is "not unreasonable."

Spain is an ally of the US, jackass.

Zapatero, who is a member of NATO and technically an ally called on other NATO countries to pull out of Iraq and leave the US fighting alone.

I though you guys cared about the troops?

Please McCain is one of the more experienced members of the Senate on foreign policy. He was reminded Zapatero was PM of Spain and he stood by his statement. I think he meant what he said.

So Obama supports the right of allies to call for other allies to break commitments and leave US troops fighting alone?

Nice to know.

This is laden with logical fallacies. You beg the question, trip on syllogism, and set up a strawman.

Your reasoning is specious and only works on dumbasses.

See, McAristotle, there was your first mistake... you thought. Keep that up, and you're bound to hurt yourself. Specifically, you'll tear a mental tendon bridging the immense logical and causal divide between "McCain doesn't know who the President of Spain is" and "Liberals don't support the troops."

"And I will veto any Zapato er.. I mean shoe store that comes across my desk!

TPM has now posted the original interview in English. The part in question comes toward the end at 6:46 or so. The interviewer clearly states that Zapatero is from Spain, though incorrectly calls him "President" (he's Prime Minister). McCain makes a few references to Latin America, but in the full context it seems to me McCain must have known that he was talking about a Spanish leader.

One thing this isn't is a pop quiz "gotcha" about who the leadership of Spain is. Zapatero was clearly referenced by the interviewer as being the head of the Spansih government. To me it really does sound like McCain had some notion of who Zapatero was, but was refusing to commit to meeting with him.

My final comment would be to note how infantile it is to refuse to talk with international leaders as a punishment for some policy they have or action they have taken. The only sensible criterion for agreeing to meet with international leaders would be that doing so advances the interests of the U.S. Refusing to talk out of pique is just stupid.

I had to read this blog twice to really comprehend that this guy is actually running for president. I thougt I woke up in an alternate reality this morning.Jesus.

So Obama supports the right of allies to call for other allies to break commitments and leave US troops fighting alone?

NATO allies -- of which Spain is one, no "technically" about it, jerk -- do not break any commitment by withdrawing troops from Iraq. It isn't a NATO mission, and the US invasion was not a matter of self defense.

Yes, numbskull, NATO countries are free to act in their self interest within the bounds of their treaty obligations, just as the US is. If their rational unwillingness to put their hands in the meat grinder along with Bush leaves the US alone, it only calls into question the wisdom of Bush's occupation of Iraq (something that both Colin Powell and Bush's father questioned before him, I might add).

McAristotle's dishonesty clearly demonstrates the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of movement conservatism. The obvious desperation in his posts are very encouraging. Keep up the nonsense!

"...most Americans may not realize that Spain is in Europe..."

HOLY SHIT!

Could it be that the Republican establishment is planning a cold coup d'etat? McCain is sworn in as president, then resigns on health reasons and Palin (they hope) will be the puppet on their strings.

To be fair to the old man, after listening to the clip on TPM, it sounds like they were on a phone line, and McCain may have had trouble hearing. The interviewer had just finished walking him through a list of countries including Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, then switched to Spain. It's conceivable that McCain didn't actually hear which country she'd just asked about, and rather than (like a normal person) say "Excuse me, we have a bad phone line, what country?" he just assumed it was another interchangeable Latin country and vamped. When the interviewer prompts him by asking "What about Europe?" she pronounces Europe with a heavy 'YOU' and an almost inaudible 'rope', and McCain clearly heard the question as "What about you?", missing the last syllable entirely.

Yes, that lame scenario is the charitable version!

McCain does sound really, really tired on the audio clip, and he clearly thinks he's talking to a local Florida radio station, not an affiliate of a Spanish network. He was badly prepped.

All that said, he's clearly suffering mental defects on a regular basis. It may be Alzheimers, or it may be bad side-effects from whatever meds he's on, but, despite my charity to an old man, he's obviously unfit for duty.

Reading this story I can't help but think of 'Arrested Development' and GOB Bluth. "Portugal? Gonna live it up down old South America way, huh Mikey?" One of the best jokes in that episode that I'm chuckling to myself about right now. Coming from the Very Serious Foreign Policy Expert though...on it's own perhaps not so worrisome, but as you stack it up with his series of other 'gaffes' (Repeated Sunni/Shia mixups, suggesting the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is training Al Queda, the 'Iraq/Afghanistan Border'...I'm sure there are other 'incidents') it starts to paint a disturbing picture no matter which way you cut it. Either his mind is slipping, he really is ignorant on these matters, he has no use for silly 'details' or some sick mix of all three of those. And he's the one on the ticket who is supposed to know Foreign Policy! No matter what it's scary.

Wait, Spain is in Europe! Damn! I need to sue my travel agency, when I booked a trip to the Barcelona Olympics they had me booked on a flight to Cozumel and then said it was short cab ride from there! Now I know why I could not find the Olympic venues!

Seriously, how could anyone vote for this clown. I can understand him getting confused following a Latin American question and then not knowing the name, but this is not the first time he has done this. Remember President Putin of Germany?

Ah, McCain yearns for the good old days of Generalissimo Franco (before he was "still dead").

New nickname for McCain: Son of Flubber (Bush was Flubber).

Shouldn't it be "Son of Son of Flubber," since W is the actual son of (H.W.) Flubber?

Actually, that is ignorance we can believe in - we have so much evidence of it.

I just listened to the interview. I think the meeting was with the Latin American press, the interviewer has a Latin American accent, not a Spanish accent.

The interviewer also uses the wrong term for Zapatero, calling him President and not Prime Minister, something a Spanish journalist would not do.

I'm not voting for McCain but Josh Marshall isn't a very good journalist because he has half his points wrong and the irony is he is making the same mistaken assumptions of which he accuses McCain.

In a revealing slip in an interview with ABC recently, Mr. Obama said, "If we're going to ask questions about who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." That he is in fact winning the contest for the most negative campaign could well spell his defeat.

I listened to the interview, and the summaries given are quite accurate. However, I have a slightly different interpretation.

Only a few months ago, McCain was responding to questions clearly and as truthfully as he could. This was the attitude that had made the press love him. Then Obama took control of the news cycle and McCain only got coverage when he made a gaffe (as one is bound to do at some point when being that talkative about so many subjects). This lead the McCain campaign to clamp down on their candidate.

McCain has quite clearly been told to stick to a script. All of the questions he answers are ones that he has been prepped for. When he is not prepared for a question, he moves to some boilerplate answer (that has also presumably been very well prepared beforehand). This interview method is perhaps most clear in the TIME interview he gave. In response to a lot of questions he gave boilerplate responses that often had little to do with the question. It came off as weird.

In the interview with the Spanish press, something very similar occurred. He'd been given question about Latin America, which he was prepared for. Then suddenly the interviewer switched to Spain. Note that she was very clear about the fact that she was talking about Spain. In each of the questions about Zapatero, she said some version of the "Spanish President, Zapatero." McCain absolutely knew she was talking about Spain. Equally clearly, he didn't have an answer prepared about Spain. So he gave the boilerplate response he'd be prepped with... about Latin America. It was all that he had prepared. He gave basically the same response each time she rephrased the question. Even when she said she was talking about Europe, not Latin America.

Oddly enough, an article that Josh Marshall linked to noted that in April McCain had said that he would like it if Zapatero came to visit the White House.

Now, the fact that he wasn't confident enough to talk about Spain is weird and disturbing. But it's part of a broader trend of McCain not answering questions he's not completely prepared for.

If this was noted in any comments that I missed in the crush, sorry for the repeat. But has anyone noticed that McCain has a prescription for Ambien?

http://www.drugs.com/ambien.html

It is a drug to treat insomnia, and has some rather serious side effects, including impairment of your ability to think clearly while awake. Whatever confusion McCain has about foreign affairs, this will exacerbate it. A lot.

That he is in fact winning the contest for the most negative campaign could well spell his defeat.

That argument is stupid and dishonest even by the standards of the Wall Street Journal's opinion page. Obama wouldclearly win the contest because his campaign isn't nearly as negative and dishonest as McCain's.

It isn't surprising that a Republican laks the criticial thinking skills not to tell the difference -- or to think this is "a revealing slip."

The stence of despearate Republican flop sweat gets heavier every day.

Several commentators here are proving their own ignorance here.

1. The Spanish premier is often referred to as the "president of Spain" because he is the "President of the Government".

2. Iraq was never a NATO mission, and the United States never activated the clause that would have compelled NATO members to become involved. Spain was well within its treaty rights to remove its troops from Iraq.