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| UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon knows who Zapatero is! |
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain. That is who John McCain appeared, at the least, to not be familiar with in an interview on a Spanish language radio station.
Via Time magazine:
During an interview in Miami earlier this week with Spanish-language station Union Radio, a reporter asked McCain whether, if elected, he would receive Zapatero in the White House. McCain answered, "Honestly, I have to analyze our relationships, situations, and priorities, but I can assure you that I will establish closer relationships with our friends, and I will stand up to those who want to harm the United States."
Ouch. The question about Zapatero, clearly framed by the reporter as a question about Spain, came after inquiries on Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba. As a result, much of the Spanish press has decided that the Republican candidate, who hails himself as the experienced foreign policy choice in this election, confused Spain — a NATO member and key ally in the fight against terrorism — with one of those troublesome Latin American states. That was certainly the interviewer's impression, for she followed up with a gentle reminder that Spain was a country in Europe. As Spanish newspaper El País put it, "In the best-case scenario, [his answer] demonstrates his ignorance with respect to Zapatero."
Of course, there's a worse-case scenario: that McCain would, if elected, maintain his predecessor's chilly relationship with Spain.
Wow! Simply wow! I mean he wasn't asked about someone say, like Gilbert Houngbo. Oh! You don't know that Gilbert Houngbo is the Prime Minister of Togo? Oh! You didn't even know there was a country named Togo? Well, at least it's not a member of NATO.
We are, however, talking about a member of NATO and an ally, if tenuous, in the war on terror. Bush would have been ripped to shreds on this one in 2000, never mind 2004. And he got a lot of 'gimmes' because everyone knew he wasn't a foreign policy 'expert.' You, John McCain, have this as one of your principle assets on your resume.
So, yes, John. We are going to hammer you on this.
Plenty of good reading on this at TPM here, here, here, here and here(there's even more, but you get the idea).
One actual station on which the interview aired: caracoll1260 scroll down to the "Hoy por Hoy" section for audio
The Spanish language channels version of the interview: Cadenaser.com
The full untranslated English version has been tracked down by TPM (it is one of the links above, but..): El Cid -- in English
Comments welcome,
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