Olive Me

In an interview on Miami’s Radio Caracol on Wednesday, John McCain was stumped by questions about what America’s relationship with Spain ought to be.  I’m trying to get ahold of the folks at Republican HQ to offer McCain a seat on one of my Spanish Journeys.  The man clearly needs a vacation, and a little taste of Europe.

He was asked whether, if elected, he would invite Spain’s President (that’s what the interviewer called him — actually, in Spain he’s known as the Prime Minister) to meet with him in the White House.  McCain responded first with a jumbled tangent about Mexico, then finally with this:  “All I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not… And that’s judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.”

Interpretations abound (well, OK, the U.S. news coverage of Spanish politics has not yet matched its attention to the culinary revolution, nor can Prime Minister Zapatero hope for name recognition here on a par with Ferran Adrià) as to what was going on behind the candidate’s beady little eyes during this exchange:

• The BBC offers a clear brief report:  “Spain Puzzled by McCain Comments,” balancing views that the candidate was confused or simply “misheard” vs. actually trying to give Spain the cold shoulder.
• U.S.News and World Report deputy editor Robert Schlesinger is troubled about the McCain policy advisor’s weird insistence that McCain was by no means confused.  So, he was pointedly dissing a NATO ally:  “McCain Gets Confused… His Advisers Get Dumb.”  (The YouTube clip is embedded.)
• Huffington Post-er Max Bergmann makes a proper stink: “This is beyond extreme. This is beyond reckless. This is insane… McCain won’t meet with a NATO ally, that has nearly 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, that has lost more than 20 soldiers there, has been brutally attacked by Al Qaeda, is incredibly influential in Latin America, has the seventh largest economy in the world, is a DEMOCRACY, and is a large and influential country in the EU. Won’t meet with them?”

Call me generous, but I’m swayed, upon listening to the clip, that the ol’ man was genuinely confused into being unable to break from his Miami-ready Latin America answers.  Not that that doesn’t worry me sick.  And I’m not sure how to be generous I can be about the post-confusion aftermath.  Maybe his advisers just don’t want to issue an invitation to Zapatero before they hire a new White House Chef?

McCain, confused:  photo from gaysocialites.com.