AMERICAblog: Senator McCain, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still seriously dead
boloboffin
· 1 year ago
I disagree respectfully, John. This is McCain continuing the policies of George Bush. This is MORE OF THE SAME. Bush has not met with Zapatero since Zapatero pulled troops out of Iraq in 2004. This was an intentional snub intended to convey that Zapatero was still not welcome in McCain's White House.
That's very nice but you know what . . . ? You offer an intelligent analysis of stupid people. They didn't think that deeply, but that was very sweet of you to think so kindly of them. The facts remain the facts: they're stupid.
sherifffruitfly
· 1 year ago
Doesn't Alzheimer's sometimes lead people to think and act as though they're reliving some long-past time?
HereinDC
· 1 year ago
Yes. the simple answer is yes.... that's what they do.
jebauer
· 1 year ago
It also makes people very aggressive due to the frustration of not understanding or being able to make simple judgments. Regardless of his ability to hear, understand, comprehend... etc... this is simply not the type of presentation the world deserves from us. It was slouchy and arrogant, which we just had eight years of. For all their talk of "Executive Experience" the McCain campaign seems to have forgotten how to present themselves to the world as any smart business executive would... diplomatic and polished.
artisticfreedom
· 1 year ago
First he slaps Iran on the back of the head, then he punches Russia in the gut, now he kicks Spain in the balls! This guy is crazy! to all of you young fellas out there- MCCAIN=DRAFT.
tlsintx
· 1 year ago
McCain brings to mind PeeWee Herman flipping his bike in front of the other kids, and saying "I meant to do that."
Would that we were even half as civilized as Spain. I'd move there in a heartbeat--but, thanks to Bush/Cheney/McHerbertHoover, I can't even afford to walk over and throw myself in the river.
SkippyFlipjack
· 1 year ago
John wrote: "It's clear from the interview, which we posted below, that McCain was so mentally of it during the interview that he didn't even understand that Spain was in Europe."
No, it's not clear from the interview; that's an incorrect interpretation. McCain couldn't handle her accent and was struggling to keep up, so thought they were talking about the leader of another Latin American country. You ask "Why would he talk about Latin America when asked about Spain four times?" Listen to the progression of the interview. She only says "Spain" twice, and because he doesn't hear her correctly, he doesn't know that they're talking about Spain.
To him, her first question on Spain sounded like: "OK, let's talk about Spain. If elected, will you meet with Jose Gobble Babbleoblobble Shamalamadingdong?" which made him forget that she said Spain. After that, she asked a couple of times "Will you meet with him?" and McCain still doesn't know who "him" is, so keeps talking about Latin America. When she follows up with "What about You-rope?", McCain is now beside himself with annoyance and confusion. This slowing cognition reflects a big concern with McCain, but the problem isn't with his knowledge of geography.
fostert
· 1 year ago
The Franco comment is pretty unfair. If McCain still thought Franco was ruling Spain, he would be glad to meet with him. After all, the Republican definition of "democracy" includes far right wing dictatorships. It used to be US policy to overthrow freely elected governments and replace them with right wing dictatorships. Remember Pinochet? Republicans thought he was a great promoter of freedom and democracy.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
Well, now, let's be fair . . . the Pope also wants Franco back.
artisticfreedom
· 1 year ago
McCain puts the dope in rope-a-dope.
eclecticbrotha
· 1 year ago
I have to agree with Skippy on this one. McCain couldn't make out what she was saying because of the thickness of her accent, but, instead of being honest and asking her to slow down a bit he just barged right ahead with his usual prepackaged talking points. While I agree he should get a pass for not understanding the actual questions I think the arrogance of forging ahead just to show he's strong on foreign policy is just as dangerous.
tbhull
· 1 year ago
OT -
Morgan Stanley is staring down the hellhole of failure.
If Morgan Stanley fails, this combined with the impact of Lehman's failure will severly hit state and local governments, including large state pension funds for teachers and retirees. Even if someone rescuses Morgan Stanley at its 11th hour and probably Goldman Sachs the acquisition will be on the very very cheap. State and local governments are already struggling with huge deficits resulting from ever declining real estate values/tax base.
RonNYC
· 1 year ago
An alternative explanation (partly): Maybe he's getting very hard of hearing and doesn't want to wear a hearing aid because it will make him look old (i.e., his age). That combined with being way over head and maybe just exhausted from whatever GOP evil he does and of course being intellectually lazy for decades and possibly the onset of early dementia may explain it all.
wolfgang_jurgen
· 1 year ago
Okay, John, are you kidding me? I read what you wrote, and couldn't help laughing out loud. I kept saying the words: 'are you kidding me" over and over again. Surely a member of our Congress couldn't be that daft, to put it nicely? And this man wants to be president of this country? (Is he sure that we have a president...God, we could have something else and nobody told him?) But then again, loads of people voted for George! John could be the other bookend to Geroge!
jimnotjimmy
· 1 year ago
I don't want to bring up the lipstick controversy again by alluding to Pygmalion, but wasn't there a song in My Fair Lady that went: McCain on Spain Is patently insane. (Chorus: "I think he's lost it!")
jmcon007
· 1 year ago
And when is someone going to rub McCain's nose in this recent quote:
"I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over (the last eight years)." - John McCain 4/17/08
Webster
· 1 year ago
And maybe McCain doesn't want to deal with Spain because gay marriages are legal there. Wouldn't want to piss off President Palin and her constituency at this point.
tlsintx
· 1 year ago
TPM has a pretty fair analysis...but since the McCain campaign lobbyists, i mean, staffers are spinning this to say "he meant to say that" I'm sure he didn't mean to say it.
The Interviewer wasn't being nice, Prime Minister Zapatero title in Spanish is "Presidente Zapatero" or "Presidente de Gobierno".
Personally, I think McCain gave his non sensical answer, not because he wouldn't meet with Prime Minister Zapatero, but there are some hard core conservatives, besides some hardcore Miami Cubans who know that Prime Minister Zapatero is a "SOCIALIST!", (well so is the Labour party, but they had a attack poodle that helped out el Presidente Arbusto (Bush) I remembered when Javier Solana became Secretary General of NATO, and some right wing Republicans in the Senate sent a petition to block the appointment because he was a new fangled SOCIALIST!..
I think some of his answers about Venezuela and Bolivia was more disturbing, given Bolivia is still the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, and needs a different approach, than conservative right wing dogma.
PeteWa
· 1 year ago
Grampa McSame needs some Ginko and a Depends change.
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
"1 - ... When asked about Spain and the president of Spain, McCain responded about "Mexico" (twice), "Latin America," and "the hemisphere." All of those are references to Latin America and not Spain. Why would McCain answer a question about Spain - four questions about Spain, in fact - by talking about Latin America?"
anwswer - to the GOP, brown people are brown people... Mexico, Spain... what's the difference?
"2 - ... We're seriously to believe that McCain just decided, 6 weeks before the election, to bash the entire nation of Spain when 5 months ago he said he was happy to meet with the Spanish leader?"
answer - mcsame and the GOP are still pissed off at Venezuela... see answer to question one.
"3. The reason McCain gives for not wanting to meet with Spain's president is that he only meets with leaders who embrace democracy and human rights. Uh, McCain thinks Spain doesn't embrace democracy and human rights?"
answer - isn't spain near Somalia? seriously, do I need to keep repeating myself? see answer to question one... oh, and add in the fact that Spain isn't a HUGE oil exporter.
/snark
Milli
· 1 year ago
I suppose Palin won't want to meet with Yeltsin either.
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
one would hope not... egad.
sukabi1
· 1 year ago
I don't know, I think it would be kind of interesting to seeing both Palin meeting with Yeltsin and McCain meeting with Franco... I mean the only thing McCain's campaign hasn't done so far is meet with dead leaders of the past... It would be a necromancers dream come true... the living dead meet the really dead...
ommzms
· 1 year ago
No one cares about this distracting detritus. All the cable news networks are playing the McPain speeches in Iowa in full, live! McCain's lying debasement of Obama is not only fulsome, spurious, and prevaricating, it is infuriating that this time has been given FREE to these monsters without equal time - not a 30-second clip - EQUAL EFFING TIME - to Obama and Biden.
The Savings and Loan scandal and the Keating Five need to be brought forth, front and center for scrutiny. My guess would be that less than one in a thousand voters even know what happened between 1986 and 1991 with regard to our financial institutions, who Charles Keating was, and what role Maverick McCain had. Perfectly illustrated, his lack of judgment, corrupt tendencies, and proclivities toward a totally deregulated economy were indicative of those same qualities that are just as extant now.
Unless the Republicans just bought that time, FCC regulations governing equal time were just severely violated (as they are diurnally).
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
seriously... sorta off track, but along the same lines as the GOP 'they speak Spanish... Mexico, Spain, what's the difference?'
I think mcsame thinks everything between the California Southern border and Columbia is "Mexico".
.
cowboyneok
· 1 year ago
Okay, this is day two or three of McStain claiming Obama is responsible for the ENTIRE ECONOMY meltdown by talking about Obama's ties to Fannie Mae. When will Obama completely SHUT HIM DOWN with a little history lesson of McCain's role in Keating Five?!!? I'm waiting... If Mr. Deregulation McCain wants to continue to play hardball then Obama - Biden need to BRING.IT.
HereinDC
· 1 year ago
Fannie Mae is 2 weeks ago..... McCain's ratings are falling because of news THIS WEEK. No need to go back to Fannie Mae. The story this week is what's bringing McCain down. Stay with what's working and not something from 2 weeks ago.
cowboyneok
· 1 year ago
Then the Obama - Biden camp need to report what you just said, or words to that effect because its a huge applause line out of McCain - Palin. I heard him saying it with, the fools who support him, lapping it up by screaming, booing and hissing when he claims Obama is somehow connected to Fannie Mae. If McCain continues to dredge that kind of personal attack shit up about Obama, then Obama - Biden need to bloody them back to shut their asses up!
I agree with you that Obama - Biden should be on TOTAL OFFENSE here. I'm hoping his campaign starts going on a ruthless attack of them, and knocks them out before they even see the big hit coming.
dad
· 1 year ago
mccain doesn't know where his elbow is.
mobmij
· 1 year ago
What I think happened was:
1. In response to the first question about Zapatero, McCain had a serious brainfart and thought the interviewer was talking about Calderon of Mexico. That kind of confusion is bad -- inexcusable really. But let's be generous and say he misheard the name. But then...
2. In response to the follow-up, McCain decided to try to fake it rather than ask for clarification or say "Oh Zapatero -- I'm sorry, I misheard your first question". That kind of dishonesty is bad in a 5th grader but completely unacceptable for a presidential candidate. When confused, ask for clarification or else the confusion will get worse. Such as...
3. The interviewer's next question names neither Zapatero nor Spain. So McCain launches into his incoherent babblings about Latin America and "the hemisphere". More faking it. Which leads to...
4. Complete breakdown in communication. Though the transcript on this site quotes the next question as "What about you" (which seems to be what McCain heard), I heard (and saw in other transcriptions) "What about Europe". Which led to McCain's "What about me what?" At this point, he's totally at sea. Which leads to...
5. Another question that mentions neither Zapatero, Spain or Europe. The result: McCain has no clue about where the conversation has gone and can only give the canned answer from his Latin America Playbook.
All in all, a very poor performance by McCain -- not because he doesn't know where Spain is or wanted to diss Xapatero, but because he didn't make the effort to understand the question or the issue. We don't need another sloganeer president who wants to answer compex questions with simplistic talking points.
Haze
· 1 year ago
WTF this guy can't be for real. Thinks Spain is part of Latin America, Czechoslovakia still exist, and Pakistan borders Iraq. I spent a lot of time in Spain during the Franco years. Spain today is nothing like then. One of the most progressive countries in Europe.
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 1 year ago
First it was that SHOCKING gaffe the other day about "SPIC" and now this! There goes the Latino vote!! (not that he ever had it, anyway, so he just wasted a lot of time on Latino radio and fucked it all up royally).
sukabi1
· 1 year ago
I think his cognitive abilities are going... between his continued statements about Czechloslavakia and now this, it's clear that he sometimes loses 20 - 30 years... that's a sure symptom of Alzheimers.... so yeah, he definitely needs to release his FULL medical records...
cowboyneok
· 1 year ago
New campaign button:
Altzheimers - Palin!
jebauer
· 1 year ago
That's PALIN-Altzheimers buddy!
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
don't forget about Iran training Al Quaida and sending them into Iraq.... oh, and the difference between Sunni and Shia... and how many houses he owns... and not knowing if condoms prevented STD's... and...
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
"MCCAIN: Well again I don't, 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.
QUESTION: Okay... what about you, I'm talking about the President of Spain?"
---
umm... okay... was anyone else hearing ronald reagan's voice while reading mcsame's response?
I'm either moving to England or Spain if this man manages to steal the election... not out of protest, but because our country will be a third world economy when that happens.
jcgraham77
· 1 year ago
Today in Iowa as Palin was opening for John McCain she repeatedly referred to their ticket as the Palin-McCain Ticket. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
RenoAnne
· 1 year ago
We need to start having a serious and open dialogue in this country about the indisputable fact that this man is in the early stages of Alzheimer's/Dementia.
EmGD
· 1 year ago
It is clear. rather than admit a gaffe and damage his precious ego, McCain would rather engage in standoffish behavior and declare his refusal to meet with a NATO ally.
This is how big boys act. Get McCain his sippy cup.
McCain, debunks Christopher Columbus discovering America. Was already in the Americas. When he set out from Spain.
LKN
· 1 year ago
McCain is in the early stages of dementia. Forgetting where a country like Spain is located is common to someone with that affliction.
Anger and frustration is also common. McCain came close to losing it at a rally this morning. The crowd (of supporters!) was cheering to drown out a protestor. McCain was irritated that the crowd would not stop cheering. That's a good tactic - get into a McCain rally; don't protest, instead start clapping and cheering at inappropriate times during McCain's speech; have the cameras rolling if he loses it!
Soundboy_jeff_meanie
· 1 year ago
in today's forecast... if you happen to be in Mexico, the rain in Spain falls mainly on mccain.
Webster
· 1 year ago
And in Hartford, Heterford, and Houston, Hurricanes Hardly ever Happen.
And if they do, McCain will likely screw up the response just as badly as Bushie.
canuck55
· 1 year ago
The debates should be very illuminating for the American people. and a lot of fun for us.
cinnamonape
· 1 year ago
Human rights? Does Spain allow abortion...at all?
What about the little babies? 'Nuff said!
<snark>
FatRat
· 1 year ago
I don't know which is worse; McCain and the his mental confusion about Spain or Dan Quayle (South Americans speak Latin- aka the dead language).
I had no problem communicating with Latin American heads of state -- though now I do wish I had paid more attention to Latin when I was in school. Dan Quayle.
All Comments
Four more years.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXU7EVXs2A
No, it's not clear from the interview; that's an incorrect interpretation. McCain couldn't handle her accent and was struggling to keep up, so thought they were talking about the leader of another Latin American country. You ask "Why would he talk about Latin America when asked about Spain four times?" Listen to the progression of the interview. She only says "Spain" twice, and because he doesn't hear her correctly, he doesn't know that they're talking about Spain.
To him, her first question on Spain sounded like: "OK, let's talk about Spain. If elected, will you meet with Jose Gobble Babbleoblobble Shamalamadingdong?" which made him forget that she said Spain. After that, she asked a couple of times "Will you meet with him?" and McCain still doesn't know who "him" is, so keeps talking about Latin America. When she follows up with "What about You-rope?", McCain is now beside himself with annoyance and confusion. This slowing cognition reflects a big concern with McCain, but the problem isn't with his knowledge of geography.
Morgan Stanley is staring down the hellhole of failure.
If Morgan Stanley fails, this combined with the impact of Lehman's failure will severly hit state and local governments, including large state pension funds for teachers and retirees. Even if someone rescuses Morgan Stanley at its 11th hour and probably Goldman Sachs the acquisition will be on the very very cheap. State and local governments are already struggling with huge deficits resulting from ever declining real estate values/tax base.
McCain on Spain
Is patently insane.
(Chorus: "I think he's lost it!")
"I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over (the last eight years)." - John McCain 4/17/08
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/217833.php
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008...
Personally, I think McCain gave his non sensical answer, not because he wouldn't meet with Prime Minister Zapatero, but there are some hard core conservatives, besides some hardcore Miami Cubans who know that Prime Minister Zapatero is a "SOCIALIST!", (well so is the Labour party, but they had a attack poodle that helped out el Presidente Arbusto (Bush) I remembered when Javier Solana became Secretary General of NATO, and some right wing Republicans in the Senate sent a petition to block the appointment because he was a new fangled SOCIALIST!..
I think some of his answers about Venezuela and Bolivia was more disturbing, given Bolivia is still the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, and needs a different approach, than conservative right wing dogma.
anwswer - to the GOP, brown people are brown people... Mexico, Spain... what's the difference?
"2 - ... We're seriously to believe that McCain just decided, 6 weeks before the election, to bash the entire nation of Spain when 5 months ago he said he was happy to meet with the Spanish leader?"
answer - mcsame and the GOP are still pissed off at Venezuela... see answer to question one.
"3. The reason McCain gives for not wanting to meet with Spain's president is that he only meets with leaders who embrace democracy and human rights. Uh, McCain thinks Spain doesn't embrace democracy and human rights?"
answer - isn't spain near Somalia? seriously, do I need to keep repeating myself? see answer to question one... oh, and add in the fact that Spain isn't a HUGE oil exporter.
/snark
The Savings and Loan scandal and the Keating Five need to be brought forth, front and center for scrutiny. My guess would be that less than one in a thousand voters even know what happened between 1986 and 1991 with regard to our financial institutions, who Charles Keating was, and what role Maverick McCain had. Perfectly illustrated, his lack of judgment, corrupt tendencies, and proclivities toward a totally deregulated economy were indicative of those same qualities that are just as extant now.
Unless the Republicans just bought that time, FCC regulations governing equal time were just severely violated (as they are diurnally).
I think mcsame thinks everything between the California Southern border and Columbia is "Mexico".
.
McCain's ratings are falling because of news THIS WEEK.
No need to go back to Fannie Mae.
The story this week is what's bringing McCain down.
Stay with what's working and not something from 2 weeks ago.
I agree with you that Obama - Biden should be on TOTAL OFFENSE here. I'm hoping his campaign starts going on a ruthless attack of them, and knocks them out before they even see the big hit coming.
1. In response to the first question about Zapatero, McCain had a serious brainfart and thought the interviewer was talking about Calderon of Mexico. That kind of confusion is bad -- inexcusable really. But let's be generous and say he misheard the name. But then...
2. In response to the follow-up, McCain decided to try to fake it rather than ask for clarification or say "Oh Zapatero -- I'm sorry, I misheard your first question". That kind of dishonesty is bad in a 5th grader but completely unacceptable for a presidential candidate. When confused, ask for clarification or else the confusion will get worse. Such as...
3. The interviewer's next question names neither Zapatero nor Spain. So McCain launches into his incoherent babblings about Latin America and "the hemisphere". More faking it. Which leads to...
4. Complete breakdown in communication. Though the transcript on this site quotes the next question as "What about you" (which seems to be what McCain heard), I heard (and saw in other transcriptions) "What about Europe". Which led to McCain's "What about me what?" At this point, he's totally at sea. Which leads to...
5. Another question that mentions neither Zapatero, Spain or Europe. The result: McCain has no clue about where the conversation has gone and can only give the canned answer from his Latin America Playbook.
All in all, a very poor performance by McCain -- not because he doesn't know where Spain is or wanted to diss Xapatero, but because he didn't make the effort to understand the question or the issue. We don't need another sloganeer president who wants to answer compex questions with simplistic talking points.
I spent a lot of time in Spain during the Franco years. Spain today is nothing like then. One of the most progressive countries in Europe.
Altzheimers - Palin!
QUESTION: Okay... what about you, I'm talking about the President of Spain?"
---
umm... okay... was anyone else hearing ronald reagan's voice while reading mcsame's response?
I'm either moving to England or Spain if this man manages to steal the election... not out of protest, but because our country will be a third world economy when that happens.
This is how big boys act. Get McCain his sippy cup.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
Anger and frustration is also common. McCain came close to losing it at a rally this morning. The crowd (of supporters!) was cheering to drown out a protestor. McCain was irritated that the crowd would not stop cheering. That's a good tactic - get into a McCain rally; don't protest, instead start clapping and cheering at inappropriate times during McCain's speech; have the cameras rolling if he loses it!
And if they do, McCain will likely screw up the response just as badly as Bushie.
What about the little babies? 'Nuff said!
<snark>
I had no problem communicating with Latin American heads of state -- though now I do wish I had paid more attention to Latin when I was in school.
Dan Quayle.