Last night Josh Marshall flagged an exchange between John McCain and a pool of Spanish-language reporters that has the Spanish press a bit confused, as McCain seemed to suggest that he might not be willing to meet with Spanish Prime Minster José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as though he might be a potential enemy. Cardinal, read the charges:
In Spain, there seem to be two lines of thinking. The great majority appear to think McCain was simply confused and didn't know who Zapatero was -- something you might bone up on if you were about to do an interview with the Spanish press. The assumption seems to be that since he'd already been asked about Castro and Chavez that McCain assumed Zapatero must be some other Latin American bad guy. A small minority, though, think that McCain is simply committed to an anti-Spanish foreign policy since he's still angry about Spain pulling its troops out of Iraq. Finally, a few of those who lean toward the first view speculate that McCain may have confused Zapatero with the Zapatista rebel group in Mexico.
Sam Stein has more, considering that McCain could potentially be deliberately alienating the Zapatero government because Zapatero is a member of the socialist party that pulled Spain's troops out of Iraq. He concludes:
The truth is, even McCain has been willing to extend an olive branch to the Zapatero government in the past. John Aravosis of AmericaBlog -- a fluent Spanish speaker -- noted that McCain gave an interview to El Pais back in April in which he said that the differences between the U.S. and Spain should be swept under the rug.
And thus, the senator finds himself in what appears to be an embarrassing if not potentially damaging proposition: either admit to confusing the name of the Spanish prime minister, a tough pill to swallow even with the built-in perception that he is the candidate with foreign-policy know-how, or explain away a position on U.S.-Spain relations that appears far outside the mainstream.
Well, they've managed to do the latter so often before I can't see why it would be a problem.
--A. Serwer
