by Marisa Trevino
One of the many criticisms levied by the McCain campaign against Barack Obama has been his lack of foreign policy experience. To make that point, Sen. McCain went on a whirlwind trip this past summer to Mexico and Colombia to prove he has a handle on what's happening south of our border and that he knows the leaders of South America.
Yet before Sen. McCain boasts too loudly, it would be nice if he got briefed on which countries actually were in South America and who their leaders are. In a radio interview that is sweeping the airwaves and headlines of Spain, Europe and South America, McCain came across as less of a candidate who has a handle on foreign policy and more like a clueless politician sticking to his campaign's playbook on how to answer questions about foreign policy.
The now infamous interview was with reporter Yoli Cuello of Radio Caracol Miami for exclusive broadcast by Union Radio stations. What happened in the interview sent shockwaves throughout Spain almost immediately because in the interview when Cuello asks McCain if he would meet with Spain's Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, McCain totally evaded the question implying that Spain isn't a friend of the United States. In the interview, which has been written about, posted and rebroadcast throughout Spanish-speaking countries now, McCain's reluctance to commit to meeting with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's Prime Minister can lead us to only one conclusion -- he didn't know who José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was.
Even if we give the benefit of the doubt to McCain and make excuses for him -- the reporter had a heavy Spanish accent, the questions leading up to the one about Spain's Prime Minister dealt with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba and Zapatero does sound like zapatistas to an untrained ear -- it doesn't erase the fact that the reporter clarified to McCain that she was talking about Spain and Europe.
The "oh sh!t" moment for McCain could be heard in that very pregnant pause once he realized his mistake. But since presidential candidates are never wrong, rather than admit he got confused, he belabored the same theme.
What's interesting is that McCain has more in common with Zapatero than he realizes. Zapatero's administration has come under fire for cracking down on undocumented workers and supporting the European Union's new "Return Directive" which will go into effect in 2010 and allows for the jailing of undocumented migrants for up to 18 months while awaiting deportation.
In the Republican playbook, Zapatero should be a great ally.
Yet, because Sen. McCain knows the leaders of foreign countries, as he says he does, Zapatero and Spain must be viewed in a cautious light with further evaluation before Zapatero would be invited to the White House under McCain's watch.
To his credit, Zapatero is downplaying McCain's remarks and chalking it up to the "election process." However, Spanish pride being what it is, the people and media of Spain aren't letting this obvious goof-up pass quietly.
The distributor of the interview, Cadena Ser and CadenaSer.com have erected a web site page addressing the global outcry to McCain's interview.
On the page, they say that in the hours after the interview aired, their site received an unusual increase in site visits and that the major media outlets in Spain, along with digital media, blogs and even TIME magazine, have commented on this interview.
Because of all the attention, CadenaSer.com has posted the original interview with McCain in English, the translated interview and an interview with the reporter (in Spanish) on their site.
While some people may dismiss the fuss over McCain's mistake, it nonetheless reflects badly on a candidate who at every turn touts his own foreign policy knowledge over his opponent's. Sometimes it's better to just quit reminding people how much better you are than the competition because it always has a way to come back and bite you where it hurts.
McCain Meant To Reject Spain Meeting, Advisor Says
by Sam Stein
In July 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that "the United States and Spain are allies. We're in NATO together; we are serving together in Afghanistan. A lot of our conversation today was about that, working together on any number of issues. We've had our differences... [but] I feel that the relationship is warm. We had a good discussion today... We're allies. But when we have differences, we will express them. I think there's no secret that out of the Iraq war, we had a particular difference in the timing of the withdrawal. But that's behind us now, and we need to look forward and look to areas on which we can cooperate and work together."
In fact, even McCain in the past has been open to closer diplomatic relations with Zapatero and Spain. As John Aravosis of AmericaBlog noted, the Senator 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.
For what it's worth, Talking Points Memo's Greg Sargent got hold of the interviewer, who says she didn't think McCain was confused about who Zapatero was, but rather was ducking a question about a potential meeting with the prime minister.
"I didn't get the impression that he didn't know who Zapatero was or where Spain was," the reporter, Yoli Cuello, told me. "Honestly, what I thought was that he didn't want to answer the question with a yes or no answer."
