Okay, a moment to take stock on the embarrassing McCain gaffe. As noted earlier, despite the fact that McCain repeatedly suggests that Spain is a country in Latin America, McCain's foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann, insists that McCain wasn't confused, knew exactly who Zapatero was and meant every word of what he said. So with the McCain campaign sticking to its guns, let's review the possibilities of what happened here. Option #1: McCain is so addled he not only doesn't know who Zapatero is but doesn't even know where Spain is located. Option #2: McCain was not confused but actually meant his very belligerent comments about Spain and the Zapatero government (Scheunemann's line). Option #3: Through some mixture of confusion and inability to understand the interviewer's accent, McCain was confused about who he was talking about and decided to wing it, assuming that the person he was being asked about was some other left-wing strong man from Latin America and answering with the standard boilerplate about standing up to America's enemies.
Okay, a moment to take stock on the embarrassing McCain gaffe. As noted earlier, despite the fact that McCain repeatedly suggests that Spain is a country in Latin America, McCain's foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann, insists that McCain wasn't confused, knew exactly who Zapatero was and meant every word of what he said. So with the McCain campaign sticking to its guns, let's review the possibilities of what happened here.
Option #1: McCain is so addled he not only doesn't know who Zapatero is but doesn't even know where Spain is located.
Option #2: McCain was not confused but actually meant his very belligerent comments about Spain and the Zapatero government (Scheunemann's line).
Option #3: Through some mixture of confusion and inability to understand the interviewer's accent, McCain was confused about who he was talking about and decided to wing it, assuming that the person he was being asked about was some other left-wing strong man from Latin America and answering with the standard boilerplate about standing up to America's enemies.
Yes, John McCain does know where Spain is, too well. Back in the early '60s he was flying low and fast over sunny southern Spain, when he and his jet had an unfortunate encounter with some high-tension powerlines. He didn't crash, but he did cause a major blackout. I diaried McCain's plane events earlier, but thought it worthwhile to remind people that John McCain is not always on the ball when piloting anything. The locals didn't much appreciate the incident, as it created a blackout, and there were some newspaper stories about the son of an admiral doing as he wanted.
Yes, John McCain does know where Spain is, too well. Back in the early '60s he was flying low and fast over sunny southern Spain, when he and his jet had an unfortunate encounter with some high-tension powerlines. He didn't crash, but he did cause a major blackout.
I diaried McCain's plane events earlier, but thought it worthwhile to remind people that John McCain is not always on the ball when piloting anything.
The locals didn't much appreciate the incident, as it created a blackout, and there were some newspaper stories about the son of an admiral doing as he wanted.
I'll go for option 3. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
