Sep
18
John McCain doesn’t know where Spain is
¡Tierra, trágame!
The Spanish media is buzzing over an unbelievably bizarre response that U.S. Senator John McCain made in an interview earlier this week with a Spanish journalist. Sen. McCain, who is running for president of the United States, was asked by a Spanish journalist whether he would invite Spain’s leader, Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to the White House. 
It’s clear from the start that McCain didn’t know who Zapatero was because he proceeded to talk about Mexico, drug cartels and Latin America. In his defense, the previous questions in the interview had to do with Latin America, so maybe that’s why McCain missed it. But the journalist asked her question again and McCain responded, again referring to Mexico and talking about America’s friends and enemies and that he’d have to review relations between the country in question and the U.S. before he could extend such an invitation to the White House. He added that U.S. relations with Latin America were important. Yeah, alright, but what does that have to do with the rain in Spain?
The Spanish journalist, exasperated, asked the same question FOUR times, and on her fourth try she was explicit: “Okay, but I’m talking about Europe – the president of Spain, would you meet with him?”
McCain’s response: “I will meet with any leader who has the same principles and philosophy as us in terms of human rights, democracy, and freedom and I will stand up to those who do not.”
HUH????
Here’s the audio clip from the interview. The Spanish translation is overlaid on the English audio, so it may be difficult to understand everything. (You can find a PDF transcript in Spanish of the interview and an article about the interview on the El País web site. There’s also a postmortem in English by U.S. political blogs America Blog and Talking Points Memo.)
Podcast: Download
No matter how you slice it, this gaffe is not something one can easily explain away. The interview presents an alarming picture of the man who would be president of the United States. It is clear that John McCain doesn’t know where Spain is and has no clue who the prime minister of the country is. The whole exchange is deeply disturbing when one considers that John McCain is running on a platform that touts his foreign policy experience and knowledge of foreign affairs. I find it hard to believe that McCain doesn’t know that Spain is a country in Europe, (the U.S. has a naval station in Spain and John McCain was a navy fighter pilot!!!), so that means that he had a “senior moment” and became confused during the interview. Despite the persistent repeating of the question, McCain remained out of it, clueless and unaware of the huge mistake he was making.
UPDATE: On Friday, a Spanish-speaking spokeswoman from the McCain campaign released a statement to Spanish media that said that no, McCain was not confused, that yes, McCain knows who Zapatero is and that yes, McCain meant everything that he had said about needing to know who America’s friends and enemies were before extending invites to the White House. She neglected to explain where this change of heart came from considering that in April of this year McCain had said that any political differences between U.S. and Spain should be “swept under the rug,” according to one report. It appears that McCain’s team would rather be stubborn and not admit he made a mistake. Mighty strange.
There’s a strong anti-American sentiment in the Spanish media and Spanish society. A gaffe like this just cements the feelings and opinions that many Spaniards have about the U.S. Thanks, John McCain for reinforcing the stereotype about Americans!
In all seriousness, if you are a U.S. citizen living abroad, please register to vote. I don’t care whether you’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, whether you support McCain, Obama or plan to write in somebody else’s name. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. This election is too important for any of us to sit on the sidelines and not exercise our right to vote. You can do an absentee ballot. Visit the web site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program for more info.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Please click run to install George W. Bush version 2.0
September 18th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
As I’ve been following this story on various websites I’ve been reminded of a lingual oddity that I’ve never been able to figure out. Eleena, perhaps you can investigate and write a post about it. Here it is:
Why do English speakers (British and American, at least) call Zapatero Spain’s Prime Minister when everyone in Spain refers to him as the Presidente. Not only that, but Spaniards have the perfectly usable words Primer Ministro that could be employed should they wish to, but they choose not to. Ditto when referring to Ms. Fernández de la Vega as the Deputy Prime Minister when she’s really the Vicepresidenta. What gives?
September 18th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Este Hombre me da mucho miedo. Gracias por haber puesto este noticia aqui.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I think that in the English-speaking world (well in the UK, at least), ‘president’ is normally associated with a head of state, and ‘prime minister’ with the head of the government. As Spain is a monarchy, the king is the head of state and so the equivalent position of Zapatero is that of “prime minster” even though the title in Spanish literally equates to President of the Government.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Thus a monarchy cannot have a president? Interesting….
Presumably we yanks just follow what you brits do.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Heh. I’ve seen some political bloggers complaining (imagine that!) that the interviewer confused McCain by referring to the “President of Spain” rather than the “Prime Minister of Spain”. This was, of course, well after he’d made a fool of himself, but it’s funny that someone picked up on the difference.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:16 am
I only have this to say: Dios mio!!!
September 19th, 2008 at 3:33 am
A the spanish naming convention for their most senior minister is slightly confusing, you would expect George W. Bush 2.0 to have a grasp of these subtleties.
A friend of mine tells me it was a compromise reached when the 78 constitution was negotiated, to satisfy republican (as in Spanish republican, not US) leaning people. Wikipedia seems to think it goes further back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Spain
By the way, if George W. Bush version 2.0 leaves you cold, are you aware of some of the warmongering stuff his running mate has been spouting. Should leave you even colder.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Someone actually interviewed the reporter, and she said that the impression she got was not that McCain didn’t know where Spain was, but that he was just ducking the question, as politicians do, and that’s the impression that I got as well.
Now, I still think it’s absolutely absurd to maintain a policy of only speaking to people we know like us (is the US a 7th grade girl?). Also my interpretation still leaves McCain flat out refusing to “commit” to opening relations with the Spanish government, which is all kinds of troubling. But as much as I dislike many of McCain’s policies and the way he has been running his campaign, I really do not believe for one second that he thinks Spain is in South America.
But ditto what you said about perpetuating stereotypes against Americans! I expect things like stupid youtube videos to make us seem dumb and intolerant, not one of our presidential candidates. =/
September 20th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
McCain is not nearly as scary as Obama. You want to talk scary?? He’s a downright socialist.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Well, Debbie, I’m not so sure what that means nowadays, especially after the week that we just had, with a massive government bailout of Wall Street and more government welfare on its way to the titans of business. It appears that the Republican party has caught a particularly virulent strain of that socialist bug when it comes to taking care of big business.
Personally, I’m not enthusiastic about either candidate and wish we could have a do over, but it is what it is.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I, too, am confused about what’s so scary about socialism. The poor receiving healthcare? Yikes!
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 pm
And Obama thinks there’re 57 states in the US
I think you can find this kind of stuff about anyone.
Re: medical insurance – the poor receive some sort of government healthcare anyway…
On the other hand, having been born in the Soviet Union I can testify that socialism is very scary indeed. It promises everything but delivers practically nothing while the government controls all aspects of your life. Read Orwell’s 1984 if you’d like to know what totalitarian socialism is (he doesn’t exaggerate too much)
I’m not happy with the current US semisocialised medicine, but it’s (still) miles ahead of what we used to have in the Soviet Union/Russia.
But it is ironic indeed that US and Europe are now heading toward socialism both in social policies and government bailouts of big businesses. One day (soon, I think) it’s bound to fall through and it’s not going to be pretty.
September 26th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Yes Natalie, social-democracies like Sweden are really scary. I can tell you, I’ve been there several times and worked for a Swedish company. They have treated me scaringly well and paid me a scaringly decent salary.
Come on!
“Some sort of healthcare”, no, the same healthcare the rich get, that’s the whole idea. This seems to be an alien concept for some people, I wonder why.
And Eleena is completely spot on, if you want to talk about socialism at its “best”, forget about the “dangerous leftist” Zapatero, look no futher than the SSA: Socialist States of America=Socialising Debt and Loses. Isn’t it great? If I were an American tax-payer I would be extremely angry.
Eleena, que no somos antiamericanos mujer, en todo caso anti “biblia en una mano y pistola en la otra”. Es que, por desgracia, esa clase de gente gobernó España durante 40 años, y no dejaron un buen recuerdo.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Well, Roberto, Sweden does seem like a nice place to live, but is there any guarantee that US is going to be like this? And not more like UK, where after years of NHS is pretty much screwed up and you still have to pay money if you want a decent health care? Considering the way it’s now when government actually pays for half of the expenses, I think the former is far more likely. Or you think that just because the government promises something it’s going to deliver?
“Some sort of healthcare”, no, the same healthcare the rich get, that’s the whole idea.
I can tell you this: the free government care recipients here in Massachusetts get a lot better plan that the limited insurance I have right now. Considering the high tax that many of them don’t even work it’s really annoying to me as a taxpayer.
“This seems to be an alien concept for some people, I wonder why.
”
Paying for everything themselves and not relying on the government for everything seem to be an alien concept for some people. I wonder why
But then, I’m a minimal government person. In my opinion, the government screws up more often than not.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
oh, and here’s an article on the “wonderful” third-world healthcare in Sweden…
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA555_Sweden_Health_Care.html
You can find similar stories about pretty much every country with government healthcare: Germany, Britain, Canada… Coincidence? More like a common trend.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:16 am
[...] applause of the evening: When Obama mentioned McCain’s recent mixup about Spain. The crowd erupted in cheers and clapping, which was only to be expected, I [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
“can tell you this: the free government care recipients here in Massachusetts get a lot better plan that the limited insurance I have right now. Considering the high tax that many of them don’t even work it’s really annoying to me as a taxpayer”—>And doesn’t this make you think the entire system is plain WRONG????
I’m more than willing to pay my taxes so that everyone gets good healthcare. And, everyone pays taxes, don’t we? Oooops no, the ilegals and their employers don’t pay taxes. Ummm, let’s see, what can we do…umm, if they are here and have jobs, because they have jobs, perhaps we should legalize them, should’t we? No, wait a minute, that’s what a dangerous socialist would do.
To each their own, Natalie, I’m not entitled to tell the Americans what they should or should not do, but, all I’m saying is, the American Health System is the worst in the world in terms on money spent/quality ratio. This is not my opinion, it is public consensus (and that includes American politicians and economists). It is studied in many Universities as an example of what not to do. Can you believe it?
Natalie, there’s an excellent book called the Undercover Economist. If you haven’t read it, do it, it’s great.
Why are you afraid of the word socialist? It’s harmless, we are not talking about a soviet regime, this is something else.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
“can tell you this: the free government care recipients here in Massachusetts get a lot better plan that the limited insurance I have right now. Considering the high tax that many of them don’t even work it’s really annoying to me as a taxpayer”—>And doesn’t this make you think the entire system is plain WRONG????
Bu “the poor” get the good healthcare… isn’t that what you wanted? I guess they need it more than I do (or so the government thinks).
Speaking about taxes – you have to remember, it’s not an unlimited resource. The more services the government offers, the more funds it needs. Or the services deteriorate. The problem is, it’s not voluntary. You’re willing to pay _extra_ taxes, that’s fine. But what if at some point you’re not happy with the government healthcare and you’d rather spend this money on private insurance, charities for the poor. Would the government allow you to stop paying taxes? Heck, no. You’d probably end up in prison as a criminal. And really, who are you to think that you know what’s better for you. The government is there to care for you. And if you don’t like the level of service… well, that’s too bad.
“all I’m saying is, the American Health System is the worst in the world in terms on money spent/quality ratio. This is not my opinion, it is public consensus (and that includes American politicians and economists).”
It’s debatable but let’s assume that it is… and we know that half of the expenses are already paid by the government… how would having a universal healthcare improve things? Wouldn’t it make them worse? I’m asking you again: where is the guarantee that the government is going my money better than I do?
“It is studied in many Universities as an example of what not to do. Can you believe it?”
Of course! In fact, I can name you a dozen things that I find wrong or in need of improvement with the US healthcare… The difference is, I believe that since the government creates most or all of these problems, we need less interference to fix it, not more. Of course, people with “government will always fix it” mentality will never agree with me.
“Why are you afraid of the word socialist? It’s harmless, we are not talking about a soviet regime, this is something else.”
But the government still controls everything and you don’t have an option of opting out? And there’s not even a guarantee of decent results? Yes, very harmless indeed.
By the way… it’s been an interesting discussion… but I’m afraid Elena might not be very happy with our off topic comments… I guess I’ll stop now before I get banned or something
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 am
It would be great to be a political blogger, especially during times like these. In fact, one of my best friends says I need to ditch this Spanish stuff and just put my private emails ranting about Obama/McCain/Palin/U.S. hegemony, etc. on display out in the open for all to see on WordPress, but I lack the cojones.
Natalie, a little spirited, free-flowing debate is often good for a blog’s soul, but you’re right, this conversation has probably run its course. Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be other things to emerge in the coming weeks in the current politlcal climate that I can make some (tenuous) connection to Spanish or Spain. (hee,hee) And dear Roberto can always be counted on to stir things up, playing the Devil’s advocate, whenever I go down that path.
I’d love for him to guest blog a piece from his unique perspective but alas, he has spurned my advances.
Roberto, what will it take to get you to write a piece for my blog? Universal health care in the U.S.?
October 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
[...] in September you may recall hearing about U.S. Senator John McCain’s bizarre gaffe about Spain. New York Times columnist, Roger Cohen, picks up the thread in today’s op-ed, [...]