(Updates at the bottom of this post)
Twin emailed me about John McCain's "Spain gaffe" earlier today, which I had touched on earlier. I said I didn't think this would amount to anything, in large part because it would be easy for McCain's trained seals to counter-spin any attacks about his being out of touch or not really that knowledgeable about foreign policy by saying "the interview was on a Spanish radio station!" With, of course, the suggestion that it was a problem of translation, even though the interview was conducted in English.
Maybe I was wrong. Check out the Veracifier's summary of the story so far:
Now, you could still make the case that McCain was just having trouble hearing or understanding the interviewer. But the first thing that jumps out at me is just how empty McCain's fallback bromides always sound. I think not enough people realize this about McCain, because you don't get much of a chance to hear him for more than the length of a sound bite.
Second, I'm intrigued by Josh's mention that the McCain team is not just going for the easy explanation of "couldn't hear well," but is instead making the problem worse. I'll have to look into that further. More updates to come, hopefully.
[Added] Greg Sargent of TPM has a post up, describing a conversation he just had with Yoli Cuello, the woman who interviewed McCain in this instance.
[Added] Here's an earlier post from TPM, with links to other stories, about the counterproductive counter-spin efforts of the McCain people on the gaffe, and how they're just making matters worse.
[Added] Yglesias's take.
[Added]Chez puts the matter in a larger context.
4 comments:
It sounds like McCain really had no clue, at least in the first round of questions. Then there was a question almost at the end, when the reporter asked: "What about Europe? I'm talking about the President of Spain." McCain didn't hear or didn't understand what she said. He asked:" What about me?"
He did sound irritated and unaware of who Zapatero was.
Jeez, don't you know that "Spain" is just a name for all those countries where they speak Spanish?
Yeah. Like Brazil.
;^)
As you've correctly highlighted, Brendan, the part that makes this funny is McCain's belligerent refusal to simply say what is clear: he didn't understand, couldn't hear, whatever. Instead, in classic George W. McCain fashion, he feels the need to insist that actually, yes, he was trying to insult a major US ally and member of NATO, while simultaneously relocating Spain to Latin America.
The man is clueless. Of course, it goes without saying that had Obama made such a gaffe, there would be wall-to-wall media hysteria. McCain would have already cut an ad highlighting the embarrassment.
I wasn't home this evening so I didn't get to see how Olbermann or Maddow played the story, but I imagine they went over it pretty thoroughly. I hope it was at least mentioned on some other programs, though I doubt it.
My feeling is that the initial gaffe was nothing compared to the Bush-like refusal to admit a mistake, even at the risk of offending a major US ally.
LOL, it's moments like these that make me miss that old spelling whiz Piscivorous. He could do a first rate job spinning this for McCain.
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