McCain on Spain is Plainly Not What’s Claimed

Okay, so enough third-person interpretations of the McCain interview where he declines to invite Spanish PM Zapatero to the White House. Listen for yourself.

A few thoughts:

1. The interviewer has a very strong accent, but is still intelligible. At least, for the most part, McCain seems to follow what she’s saying.
2. McCain sounds awful — like he’s been up 48 hours and is about to pitch over onto the microphone. His voice is a low-affect monotone most of the time. Worrisome.
3. The question was discernible — and re-explained multiple times. McCain’s response was still … off.

There have been different interpretations suggested of what was happening.

1. McCain couldn’t follow the accent. Except he’d followed along thus far, and didn’t ask for any clarification.
2. McCain just didn’t remember who Zapatero was, was confused that they were talking about Spain not (as in the previous questions, though the transition was mentioned by the interviewer) Latin America, etc. This feels like the most likely.
3. McCain was bored/tired and simply mouthing whatever would get to the next question and get the interview over. But he gave reasonable (if canned) answers to all the other questions offered. Why suddenly go into some sort of non-responsive mode for that one?
4. McCain was standing tough against someone who campaigned on an anti-American platform and who pulled Spain’s troops out of Iraq. This is the Official Explanation from the campaign (as well as the Official Bush Position). Except … he didn’t sound at all defiant or ballsy. He doesn’t note — as with questions about Chavez and Castro — what he might object to about Zapatero, or how Zapatero needed to shape up in order to warrant an invite to the White House. He just keeps repeating, over and over, “strengthen relationships with friends / stand tough against enemies.” 

In short, the answer sounds like the canned answer he was given to use if someone asked him about a country that he didn’t immediately recognize or remember what the foreign policy stance should be. And, once there, he had to stick with it.

I think #2 is the most likely, based on what I heard — both in that question, and in the overall interview. As I said, McCain sounded like he could use a good couple of days of naps.  That he drew a blank about the president of Spain isn’t the biggest sin in the world. That his campaign has decided to (falsely, in my opinion) turn the lapse into some sort of intentional policy statement is a lot more worrisome.

As a pedantic side note: formally speaking, Zapatero is Prime Minister of Spain. However, he is also considered “President of the Government,” and sometimes referred to as “President” — as the interviewer in this case did.