Not a Gaffe? McCain Campaign Willing to Destroy Relationship with Spain, Europe to Conceal Confusion

<

Worse than Bush. There can be no doubt about it now.

In McCain's bizarre interview with Spanish Owned Union Radio he refused to say whether he would meet with Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Listening to the interview repeatedly, it simply seemed that McCain had no idea who Zapatero actually was. McCain seemed to think he was a Latin American autocrat - despite the reporter repeatedly saying "I am talking about Spain." This gaffe would seem to have very significant implications. Not knowing who the leader of Spain was or thinking Spain was in Latin America would not really be shocking coming from his running mate, but McCain has run on his foreign policy expertise and such confusion completely undercuts his credibility. Furthermore this gaffe would bring up real questions about his age. Is McCain really prepared to deal with a crisis at 3AM, when he can't even remember who the leader of Spain is during a late evening interview?

But was it a gaffe? While it definitely seemed so, now Randy Sheunemann, McCain's foreign policy adviser is shockingly saying that this is not a gaffe but an intentional expression of policy toward Spain. Instead of just admitting that it was small gaffe late in the day, the McCain campaign has decided that they care so little about governing that they are willing to potentially nuke the U.S.-Spain relationship just to get elected. Sheunemann emailed the Washington Post, saying:

The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero (and id'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview," he said in an e-mail.

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?

The only plausible explanation for McCain not wanting to meet with Zapatero, is that, like Bush, he is still angry about Spain pulling its troops out of Iraq in 2004. If McCain carries that much of a grudge then how in the world will he rebuild our relationship with Europe, as he has said he would do. In a big foreign policy speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council in March, McCain expressed a desire to strengthen the transatlantic relationship.

We cannot build an enduring peace based on freedom by ourselves, and we do not want to.  We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact...The bonds we share with Europe in terms of history, values, and interests are unique.  Americans should welcome the rise of a strong, confident European Union as we continue to support a strong NATO.

McCain even told El Pais, Spain's major newspaper, in April that he would bring Prime Minister Zapatero to the White House. (translation via America Blog)

Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, is ready to change the policy of estrangement with the Spanish government that was put in place for four years now by George Bush. He declared that he was ready to fully normalize bilateral relations and that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was invited to the White House.

And does McCain not know that his campaign has already met with a representative of Zapatero's office? From the BBC in April:

Recently, Bernardino Leon, who is currently heading the General Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Office to attempt to foster Zapatero's interest in international issues, travelled to Washington to meet the foreign policy advisers to Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and to Republican candidate John McCain. [BBC Monitoring 4/22/08]

But Sheunemann's statement now makes it clear that there will be no rebuilding of the transatlantic relationship. Instead, McCain will continue the ruinous approach of the Bush administration and continue to alienate our allies and further isolate America. This should not come as a surprise. McCain has after all shown in the past a reckless eagerness to attack America's allies.

See below for some of his more prominent attacks:

 

McCain attacked our allies as "vacuous and posturing" for opposing war in Iraq. "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that "Iraq is the test" of both the U.N. and NATO. He charged that the alliance is failing the test because of the "flawed calculations" and "vacuous posturing" of Germany and France. McCain and Rumsfeld both said that recent French and German foot-dragging over even discussing the possible deployment of NATO assets, such as Patriot anti-missile batteries, to Turkey also threatened to damage the alliance." [Washington Post, 2/9/03]

John McCain engaged in the anti-French bashing of the far right because they opposed the invasion of the war. "The Lord said the poor will always be with us, and the French will be with us, too," said McCain, a member of the Armed Services Committee. "This is part of a continuing French practice of throwing sand in the gears of the Atlantic alliance. But now they're playing a dangerous game, and coming close to rendering themselves irrelevant." A few days later he even said that, "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) likened France to an aging '40s starlet "still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it." [NY Times, 2/14/03. NY Daily News, 2/17/03]

McCain attacked Germany for opposing the war - saying they lacked "political courage." McCain said that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "looks little like the ally that anchored our presence in Europe throughout the Cold War...A German Rip Van Winkle from the 1960s would not understand the lack of political courage and cooperation with its allies on the question of Iraq exhibited in Berlin today." [Washington Times, 2/14/03]

On the war path, McCain said didn't care if invading Iraq damaged UN, thought Iraq would prove UN to be irrelevant. "If war is necessary, the United States will not 'be going it alone,' he said, but will wage war in Iraq with a coalition of allies - with or without the blessing of the United Nations. 'The problem here is not whether we do damage to the United Nations if we have to take military action,' he said. 'The question is, will the United Nations follow the League of Nations and risk irrelevancy.'" [Washington Times, 2/14/03]

McCain dismissed interests of French and Russians over invasion, said they were just based on commercial concerns. McCain said that "The French and Russians are putting their "commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization." [Washington Times, 2/14/03]

At German security conference in the run up to the war McCain echoed Rumsfeld's notorious attacks on our European allies. "Rumsfeld has made headlines across Europe in recent weeks for a series of barbs at those who oppose U.S. policy." McCain clearly echoed Rumsfeld's statements, "McCain accused the Germans and French of "calculated self-interest" and "vacuous posturing" that left NATO with a "terrible injury." German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Germany would support its ally Turkey, but the question was one of timing. Both German and French officials have said that such a vote is tantamount to admitting war's inevitability. The conference's most emotional moment came from Fischer...he told how three times he had led the charge for German troops to be deployed: in Kosovo, Macedonia and Afghanistan...His voice rising, and beginning to speak in English, he addressed Rumsfeld directly: 'My generation learned you must make a case and, excuse me, I am not convinced.' Rumsfeld sat against the wall, sipping water and watching without expression. Much was said at the meeting about the strident tone of U.S.-European discussions." [Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/9/03]

McCain rejected calls to get more international troops on the ground in Iraq. McCain said, "I think that the only military presence required right now would be American and British." [MSNBC Hardball, 4/23/03]

Comments

[Garvagh]

Great piece! Did McCain pretend to have a "senior moment" because he had a vague idea that he is supposed to be wary about Spain? Jacques Chirac told Tony Blair, before the invasion, that it would be virually certain to set off a vicious civil war. This complete, posturing horse's ass, John McCain, expressed open contempt for a country providing much-needed wisdom to a commander-in-chief (G W Bush) who obviously was an arrogant ignoramus. McCain encouraged the squandering of at least $1 trillion in US taxpayer dollars on this idiotic adventure in Iraq. Randy Scheunemann is a virtual prostitute in the service of Israeli militarists who want US help in a vast enlargement of the war in the Middle East.

[Sundialsvc4]

John McCain (and Barak Obama, for that matter) is speaking in the swaggering, "I don't have to care what you think" tone of someone who knows that paperless voting-machines will "elect" him.

He doesn't have to care where Spain is. He's got nukes.

Once the "National Service Act of 2007" (look it up on the official Library of Congress web-site at http://thomas.loc.gov) is dutifully buried by-reference on page 1,346 of the next spending bill, he's got every man OR WOMAN in this country age 18 TO 42(!!) ... "Greetings, MOM..." ... as his galley-slave.

Thanks to the "mumble-mumble 'precedent'" set by his Noble Predecessor, he can enact laws by "Signing Statements­." In other words, he is now King of America.

So... if in the next six weeks or so you observe the United States of America being thrust into the "Great Depression of 2008," you will see the counter-attack that the "Project for the New American Century" never anticipated.

"Those who live by the sword die by the sword," but such people "can never imagine anything BUT 'the sword.' " The world HAS experienced WorldWar, on its own soil. Japan can never clean-up Hiroshima or Nagasaki. France's "demineurs" may well spend the NEXT hundred years (also...) cleaning up after World War ONE. Both countries made the mistake of trying to counter a military threat by military means. ("Maginot Line, anyone?") They have learned from those mistakes.

[Berryives]

But why would McCain deliberately make statements that are confusing? Wouldn't you be hard pressed to find even neocons who would hesitate to show willingness to meet with the leader of Spain? There is no win here. It is simply frightful that this man has won the Republican nomination, and still has a good chance of winning in November. If he gets elected, then Americans as a whole are truly a sorry lot headed for much more misfortune than we've already subjected ourselves to.

[carlota]

I think you would be hard-pressed to find neocons that know where Spain is, or who the Spanish leader is. McCain's response was meant to divert the meat of the question, while still sounding tough on foreign policy. Imagine if he'd said "Yes, I will gladly meet with the Spanish Prime Minister" and then it came out that the Spanish Prime Minister is...gasp, a Socialist! And double gasp, pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq as his first order of business. No, McCain's being so careful about saying the right thing to his fractured republican base that he ends up not saying much of anything and sounding like he belongs in a nursing home.

[NamelessGenXer]

[[ Wouldn't you be hard pressed to find even neocons who would hesitate to show willingness to meet with the leader of Spain?]] I can name one: Scheunemann. Now that his attempts to manufacture the Georgia-Russia Conflict to make McCain look presidential have failed, he has to start a war somewhere, right?

[live by the golden rule]

McCain graduated a few people up from the bottom of his class, and, since he was one of these legacy students [like Bush] in reality he probably flunked out. SO he clearly, like Bush, is not very curious, does not bother to learn details etc. what a disaster. But, the even bigger disaster is that his shoot from the gut lack of attention to information has led him to inflict Palin on us all.

[Ironfox]

495 out of 500.

[willowcope]

Not that good, by almost half. Actual numbers are that he ranked 894 out of 895.

[bobwalters]

"We don't need no stinkin' allies!" Don't y'all understand, the US is "EXCEPTIONAL!!" (Irony & sarcasm fully intended.)

[Over50WhiteWoman]

Clearly, since obtaining the nomination McCain has had to adjust many of his principles to accommodate the more conservative wing of his party--hence his flip-flops on torture, the tax cuts for the top 1%, even the G.I. bill with help for veterans, off-shore drilling, immigration, etc. (What hasn't he changed? The list is shorter.)

This is just one more example of his doing so. I think he did intend the confused statements. Either way--he is no foreign policy expert--that is a myth from the 'liberal' media. LOL.

[Daniel8168]

What is particularly funny to me is that he not only adopted all these Neo-con positions in order to be allowed to spend their money, but when Lehman Bros. and Meryll Lynch took a fat crap this week, he had to do a 180 and pretend that he was for corporate regulation. Reagan is probably spinning in his grave right now.

[ilpostino]

GOP acolytes would hail a monkey if it was nominated as the official candidate. This morning, CNN granted almost 15 minutes to former drug czar and education director Bill Bennett for his opinions on Obama's views on the broken economy. Puh-leeeze. Bill Bennett? Come on guys. Pick someone with an iota of credibility and/or objectivity. Bill Bennett has neither. Bennett, a neo-conservative and author of "The Book of Virtues," among other titles, had a huge gambling addiction, remember?
But I digest...;­-)
McCain right now could claim that Spain is part of the axis of evil and GOP followers would say "Right on."
Scary stuff folks.

[ctman47]

Hey give the guy a break. You can't see Spain from Arizona so how is he supposed to have any foreign policy knowledge of Spain????

[scandinavian]

:D ........ :C .....

[JeanPaulSatire]

Well, living in Arizona, he must see plenty of Spaniards illegally streaming across the border, looking for work as gardeners, migrant farm workers, chicken-pluckers, etc. Doesn't that count??

[ArcticAquarium]

Don't you know the difference between spaniards and mexicans?

[Berryives]

This is so unbelievable that it reinforces speculation that McCain is showing signs of dementia. But what would we have to worry about with Palin-Vacuo waiting in the wings?

[RDA33]

When I watched the interview, my first impression was that he did not know who Zapatero was and then he seemed even more confused about Spain's geographical location. This brings me back to his gaffes earlier into this campaign when he did not know the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni, thought that Iraq shared a border with Pakistan and believed that Iran was training Al Qaeda terrorists. This is the man who Repubs believe is well informed about international matters and can effectively deal with foreign policy issues. Are Americans really going to vote for McCain? On the home front he is a total washout on the economy and does not appear to have a plan to deal with the escalating crises in this country.
I am horrified to think that McCain might win this election with all his shortcomings and then have a VP who does not know what a VP does. Maybe, we should be building a Bridge to Nowhere so that we can all go there when this thing collapses.

[Garvagh]

Do we really want Israeli militarists deciding crucial issues of war and peace for the American people? If this is the game plan, by all means bring in Randy Scheunemann as National Security Adviser. The US has blown a billion or more on the Iraq fiasco; Scheunemann and his collection of neocon warmongers could up this fiagure by many times!

[BigRonW]

"The US has blown a billion or more on the Iraq fiasco..." Looks like you've lost a few decimal places there, son. Unless you're talking about how much it's costing per WEEK!!!.

[ffny]

Spain is Lucky!!!!

They don't have to and hopefully they and US wont have to deal with John McCain!

[Archie1955]

Lack of mental acuity, how about beginning evidence of Dementia? At 72 many people would evidence the same symptoms. It simply is too far along the way in life to take on the mst difficult job in the world. The US public should save him from himself and retire him.

[Lilli917]

I believe that Dwight Eisenhower made a comment to the effect that no one over 70 should be President. Followed by "I should know."

[gopindrag]

Does anybody else get the growing horror sensation that we are witnessing the disarticulation of America?

[carlota]

Of course it's not a gaffe. This sort of vague, confusing, uninformed, insulting and threatening double-speak is becoming modus operandi of the McCain/Palin camp (or is it Palin/McCain?).

The repuplican party is having a major identity crisis: Are they moderate, mavericks, wanting to distance themselves from Bush-politics or are they Jesus loving, war-supporting, enemy-making, gun-toting, creationist promoting hockey Moms and Nascar Dads taking all their cues from Bush-politics? Amazingly, McCain is trying to appeal to both factions. Now that all the shock-value has worn off, the decision to add Palin to the ticket has esentially added a world of contradiction to the McCain campaign (including who is running for what). These sorts of public humiliations are going to start coming fast and furious because McCain is desperately grubbing votes without regard to fact, truth or even logic.

As for Spain, are we forgetting that whole episode with "freedom fries"? Is it really so shocking that a vote-grubbing republican would insult and damage relations with a democratic nation and it's leader for not supporting the Iraq War? This is McCain playing the role of Bush. Spain was only an ally when they had a religious, neo-fascist leading the country. Zapatero is a socialist and one of his first moves as president was to remove Spanish troops from Iraq...a move that was widely approved by his constituents.

[Ironfox]

I digress, but this goes to attitude: Re: " freedom fries ", if it had not been for the French fleet blockade of the British fleet at Yorktown Cornwallis would have escaped and the war would probably have been lost. And forget the loans, grants and troops supplied by France: who cares, we are American and don't owe anthing to anybody. Right ?

[JPHR]

McCain is an extension of the NEOCON and some hardliners like Richard Holbrooke (D?). There is a pattern of aggressive containment in USA policy to Russia. Read conservative Pat Buchanan:
http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/08/pjb-blowback-from-bear-baiting/

There has been some recent discussion of the Bush doctrine, however the simplified Bush spoiled brat routine is more significant: "Either you are with US or you are against US". That pattern repeats itself in all relationships. Though it might have survival value for the head of a primitive tribe, it proves to be disastrous in international relationships and foreign policy. Fundamental is the total lack of respect for the interests of other parties. Within the USA democracy you have seen the 8 years of manipulation, illegal actions, secretive manner and lack of accountability. In foreign relations there is a total lack of respect for international law (Geneva conventions) and international institutions.

End 2007 Putin complained about this attitude in frank language and exposed the NEOCON wet-dream:
http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?sprache=en&id=179

The resulting uproar by the NEOCON refrained from direct quoting, but used the NEOCON propaganda approach: repeat a lie often enough and it will become a reality in the perception.

Be honest compare:
Medvedev recent invitation to US, Canada, etc for negotiation on the Artic Sea resources, where he explicitly recognizes the interests of the various parties.
To
USA invasion Iraq for WMD, or Osama, or Democracy, or Oil?

[ArcticAquarium]

It's weird, isn't it, that it seems that Russia might be more popular these days than USA. I never thought it to be possible, to be completely honest, but there you go. And no one else is to blame but USA itself.

[djarvis]

Clearly, McCain has shown that he would continue the "go it alone, cowboy diplomacy" of the Bush administration and even take it up another level with his latest comments of unwillingness to meet with our NATO allies in Spain.