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?

McCain did say earlier this year that he'd meet with Zapatero. Why is he refusing to commit to a meeting now? Spain has suffered horribly as a result of its alliance with the US. Why would he want to offend an ally? I've been looking at articles about this gaffe in several Spanish newspapers. The focus seems to be amazement that McCain lumped Zapatero in with the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, and perhaps even the Zapatistas of Mexico.


"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