CHipBuffalos wrote:
Caterpillarsandbutterflies wrote:

OMG, let's all freak out about this! Horrors!

Let's look at it in a more realistic way, shall we?

He doesn't want to say definitively that he'll meet with Zapatero given that relations between him and Bush have been, shall we say, frosty, and he doesn't want to say definitively that he won't meet with him because Spain is, after all, an ally, so he's filibustering her with a stock answer about the criteria he'd use for meeting with any world leader. The reference to Latin America is his (admittedly awkward) way of steering the conversation back to that area of the world, which is where the interview began. Don't believe me? Just ask the interviewer. She took it exactly the same way. And the punchline? McCain already said he'd meet with Zapatero earlier this year. He may be downplaying that now to burnish his "tough leader" image for the general election, but if so, he's no guiltier of opportunistic flip-flopping than The One is vis-a-vis, say, NAFTA.

Exit question: Why would McCain be cool about committing to meeting with a guy who's on record as saying he hopes Obama wins?

I think it's highly likely that the incident reflects an onset of senile dementia more than anything else. IMHO

I think you may be right. This may be the first indication of it we've seen, because I'm sure that in a more lucid moment, McCain could find Spain on a map. He had to know that he was being interviewed by a Spanish reporter from one of the largest newspapers in Spain. She specifically asks,

"Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you're elected president, would you invite President Zapatero to meet with you in the White House?"

She mentioned Spain a couple more times, and McCain still talked about Mexico and Latin America. Randy Scheunemann wants us to think that McCain wasn't confused, but actually meant his belligerent comments about Spain and the Zapatero government. I guess they would rather damage Spanish-American relations by ridiculously insisting that McCain knew exactly what he saying than admit the obvious -- that he didn't understand the question.


"The ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -- Martin Luther King