Blogging on Meds

For my money, Obama narrowly won this debate, although McCain was a little sharper than I’d expected and certainly scored some points. McCain is the guy who’s had a brutal two weeks, and it only got worse after his stunt where he said he was “suspending” his campaign and suggested the debate should be postponed, and in the polls, and a draw doesn’t do him any good. It is especially damaging to McCain when you consider that the foreign policy largely took center stage last night, and this is an issue that goes to the heart of McCain’s campaign. He’s painted himself as the foreign policy expert and the experienced hand, and he had to clearly demonstrate that he was superior to Obama in this regard. He did no such thing. Obama went toe-to-toe with McCain on all the foreign policy questions, and he hammered McCain on Iraq very effectively. In my mind, McCain scored some points when he lambasted Obama for agreeing to sit down with the Iranian president, but overall, McCain couldn’t separate himself from Obama on the issues of Russia, Georgia, Afghanistan, or Pakistan. McCain’s fumbling of the Pakistani president’s name (he called him Qadari but it’s Zardari) maybe wasn’t the biggest deal, but he claimed that Musharraf took over in 1999 when Pakistan was a “failed state.” That’s simply false. I thought Obama did a great job explaining why the more important fight was in Afghanistan. Overall, Obama showed the voters who are uncomfortable with his grasp of foreign policy that he knows his stuff and would do what it took to protect America. McCain needed a clear win on his central issue of foreign policy, and he didn’t get it.

Obama let the economic debate center too much around earmarks and spending, but he still outclassed McCain on those topics. Most voters rate the economy as their number one issue, and I think Obama was clear about his tax cuts for the middle class and how he planned to make sure everyone had health care, and he slammed McCain for his tax cut plan for the wealthiest and for his giveaways to the oil companies. The economic portion was a clear win for Obama, in my opinion. Both candidates fumbled the ball a bit on the financial crisis, so that was a wash.

So, what did everyone else think? The snap polls of undecided voters following the debate gave Obama a clear win, but it’s usually best to let things settle for a few days and then look at the polls. A lot of people noticed McCain wouldn’t look Obama in the eye and was dismissive of him, and I don’t think that will sit well with people.

The next debate will be on domestic issues, and the final debate will be on the economy, so we’re now moving on to Obama’s turf, which is not good news for McCain.

Pool Photo By Chip Somodevilla

…before we rush to grant this administration hundreds of billions of dollars with no caveats, control, or oversight (…sounds eerily like the Iraq debacle, no?)

Consider this:

“Section 8 of the proposed plan says: ‘Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.’  more

And then watch this.

Yes, it’s the Daily Show…but, as has become the norm, Stewart and Co have completely shown the media up when it comes to both the oh-so-desperately-needed muckraker-style journalism (under the guise of satire, of course) and the highlighting of the manipulations, shortcomings and failings of this administration.

So contact your officials to tell them that you’re not going to be fear-mongered into this sort of thing again…and that you expect the same of them.

And what’s the alternative?  Certainly not “do nothing.”  For instance, here’s an idea: listen to Chuck Schumer.

So this is the caliber of discourse that we’ve come to expect from our Vice Presidential candidate, huh?  Yikes.

Watch that and tell me that you don’t experience all of the following:

a) Shock and awe that that woman might soon represent you to the world.

b) A curiosity as to when Couric hosted SNL, and how they made Fey look so convincing.

c) A strange new appreciation of George W’s eloquence.

But hey, hats off to McCain for managing to make her seem a viable candidate.  Of course, he’s had to shield her from the media almost entirely (3 interviews — if you include the new CBS interview — to Biden’s ~80 since being named VP candidate)…and they certainly fought hard and won to change the format of the VP debates so she can stick to the script.

But whatever, McCain’s been able to play the media effectively for years.  More recently, think back to how effortlessly he pandered and parlayed the impending disaster of Gustav into a non-photo op with George W at the opening of the Republican National Convention. Think I’m being too harsh?  Consider his relative non-response to the far more devastating Ike (sure, we got a couple press releases, but I didn’t see/hear of any preparation-assessment roadtrips before ol’ Ike came to Texas…).

Or how he half-succeeded this week in attempting to cancel the first presidential debate to “Put Country First” and fix the economy (nevermind that it wasn’t close to broken as far as McCain was concerned as recently as last week).

Oh, right — but he did it so he could rush back to help “break the deadlock” in Congress.  Except there wasn’t any deadlock…and no one asked for/wanted/needed his help.  I mean, what could they need from the guy who’s missed so many damn senate votes anyway?

Or wait…maybe he’s just not ready for the debate itself?

What’s important here is that McCain has taken a time out.  Kinda.  Sure, his surrogates are still out there bashing Obama (…time out?).  But this move attempts three things:

1) McCain “looks” like a leader.  Sort of.  Actually, as far as I’m concerned, he looks like a confused old man taking orders from his handlers.  But, hey, that’s just me.

2) McCain further shields Palin.  As David Letterman ranted about last night (brilliant video below), the campaign shouldn’t just stop…administrations can’t just call time out.  What should be happening here is that Palin should be out pounding the trail while McCain attends to business.  But nope — this distraction even lessens the amount of time they’ll have to keep her away from the press between now and the election.

3) McCain saves the “Foreign Policy” debate for later.  It’s clear at this point that McCain is perceived (however incorrectly) as the foreign policy guy, and Obama is the economy guy — at least according to the polls.  So, what’s bad for the foreign policy guy?  Having the foreign policy debate during an economic crisis so massive that no one cares about much else at the moment.  So, this move saves that point for later.

But, whatever — it’s all nonsense.  What Americans need right now are two things: the democratic process and leaders.

The debates are part of the democratic process.  That’s something we don’t suspend, and we don’t cancel.  Democracy first.  If not, what’s next?  Suspend the election?  Just push it back a bit?  Nope.  Remember when “not shopping” was “letting the terrorists win”…?  Right…so who wins if we “suspend our democratic process”…?

And leaders.  Not figureheads — leaders. We need people we can believe in and trust to go out and offset a national crisis like this.  Not with band aids or promises to be broken at a later date, but with real solutions that come from honest — even sometimes unattractive — answers.  That’s why Obama’s push to debate is not only the right move, it’s the patriotic one too.  In times of trouble, we need our government to stand before us and take the heat — to present solutions and to take action, but all within the context of openness and transparency.  Even if it means taking a couple hours away from the closed-door sessions.  Now more than ever, accountability matters — McCain wants none of it…and Obama, on the other hand, is ready to deliver.

Consider this: McCain’s attitude towards the debates is clear…he finds them superfluous.  He cast aside national discourse — the two candidates first chance to spar on the most important issues of our day — as though it were the finale of American Idol.  Fitting, given his American Idol running mate, but nonetheless insulting, and cynical.

In fact, McCain’s posturing proves him to be exactly what he so desperately tries to convince everyone he hasn’t become — a power-hungry figurehead who considers an active, participatory democracy just a cheap popularity contest.

That’s un-American, my friends.

You can’t make this stuff up. McCain said today that he was suspending his campaign. He says he’s going to Washington to make sure that there’s a resolution on the Wall Street bailout bill. Nice of him to notice that hearings have been going on all week. I guess it wasn’t that important to go to those. Oh yeah, and he’ll still give a speech at Clinton’s Global Initiative meeting Thursday morning before he flies to DC. Priorities, naturally.

It’s laughable that McCain thinks he is so important that his appearance will suddenly lead to a resolution. All he’s going for is strategic timing, because he knows Congress is supposed to recess on Friday and needs to pass something at the latest by this weekend. He’s hoping he can take credit in case something passes, although no one knows how he will vote or what the bill will look like.

Anyway, since he’s trying to look like a leader who can work across party lines, he’s suspending his campaign, and he wants the first Presidential debate, which is this Friday, postponed if there’s no bailout deal by Friday.  Obama said “thanks but no thanks” to postponing the debate, and he said that he was still planning to debate on Friday, because it was more important than ever for the public to know what the next president’s plans are. The Presidential Debate Commission agrees with him.

Well, McCain decided to up the ante tonight. He suggested that if there’s no bailout deal, then he wouldn’t show on Friday, and he suggested that they move the first presidential debate to Oct. 2nd, which would mean that the VP debate on Oct. 2nd would be postponed. He doesn’t seem to have offered up an alternative date for the VP debate, but presumably, never would be good, since his camp clearly doesn’t want anyone to ask Palin any questions about anything.

So, not only does McCain not want to debate Obama on the ridiculous pretense that he is needed in Washington, where he hasn’t attended a single hearing this week on the financial crisis, but he doesn’t want Palin to debate Biden either. Unreal. I think McCain has officially jumped the shark now. McCain can manage to be in DC tomorrow and then in Mississippi on Friday night, unless he’s telling us he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Anyway, if McCain doesn’t show, then Obama can take the stage alone and do a town-hall style meeting, where the focus is on him, and who knows, maybe it’ll put Mississippi in play for him.

If McCain is willing to sit out a debate in order to look important, that’s his prerogative. It’s idiotic, but whatever. I’ve gotten used to the McCain campaign doing ridiculous stupid things at this point, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t show on Friday.

Oh yeah, McCain also canceled his appearance on Letterman tonight. Letterman was not too pleased.

In case you’re curious about the McCain camp’s talking points on this, they accidentally sent them to reporters (hat tip: Thinkprogress):

What else did you expect from “Mr. 10%“? I mean, he’s a single guy now! Stay classy, Zardari.

Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, entered the room seconds later. Palin rose to shake his hand, saying she was “honored” to meet him. Zardari then called her “gorgeous” and said: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.” “You are so nice,” Palin said, smiling. “Thank you.”

A handler from Zardari’s entourage then told the two politicians to keep shaking hands for the cameras. “If he’s insisting, I might hug,” Zardari said. Palin smiled politely in response.

Nice to know that Bush is on the job:

The White House announced Tuesday that President Bush will postpone a scheduled fundraiser in Florida Wednesday so that he can focus on the economy, according to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

“The President will attend his scheduled meetings tomorrow in New York and will then return to Washington,” said Perino. “His travel to Florida has been postponed so he can concentrate fully on the situation in the financial markets and the legislation before Congress.  We will let you know if there are any further updates to the President’s schedule.”

So, John McCain has been running an ad suggesting that Barack Obama takes advice from Franklin Raines, the former CEO of Fannie Mae. McCain’s ad is basically trying to tie Obama to the financial crisis. Both Raines, who is not a part of Obama’s campaign, and Obama deny the charges. Well, looks like McCain should have been a little more careful before bringing up the issue of who has ties to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who are at the center of the mortgage crisis and were recently taken over by the government.

The NYT reports that the lobbying firm run by Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, got $15,000 per month in lobbying fees from Freddie Mac from the end of 2005 through this August. This directly contradicts McCain’s assertion on Sunday that Davis hadn’t been involved in any way with the mortgage giants for several years. When the issue was brought up, McCain said that Davis

has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.

He should have thought twice before saying that, because the NYT decided to examine that record a little more closely. They found that Freddie and Fannie set up an advocacy coalition and put Davis in charge. And what exactly did this coalition do?

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall. (emphasis mine)

McCain’s campaign tried to play it off by saying that Davis stopped receiving a salary from Davis Manafort, his lobbying company, in late 2006, but as the NYT notes:

Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as an equity holder continues to benefit from its income. No one at Davis Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said. (emphasis mine)

I guess this whole thing probably shouldn’t have come as a big surprise, given that McCain’s campaign is being run by lobbyists. Given how important economic/financial issues are to the voters right now, the question is whether McCain will fire Davis. If not, it will look like he’s been lying about Davis’s ties to Freddie Mac (I’m sure the media will insist that St. McCain didn’t know). It will directly tie his camp to Freddie Mac, which is just not a position you want to be in right now. Of course, McCain’s campaign has been blatantly lying about a lot of things recently, but since the press started calling them out on it, they’ve gotten extremely flustered. So, will they just continue to mock journalistic organizations, specifically the NYT, or will McCain come under pressure to get rid of Davis? Your call, Senator.

The Washington Post notes that a satirical email, made to sound like those infamous Nigerian bank scam emails, is making the rounds and mocking Paulson’s bailout plan…funny stuff:

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout {at} treasury(.)gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

      A good portion of the Left has been begging Obama to satisfy their hunger for “red meat” by bringing up the Keating 5. While it would be gratifying to watch McCain relive his biggest political embarrassment, next to getting punked by George W. in 2000, until recently it could have been extremely dangerous for Obama to invoke it.

     Democrats want to use the Keating 5 scandal to attack McCain’s character and call into question his ethical center. In any other election, this would be fair and reasonable, but McCain is probably immune to the Keating virus. He has already survived by being re-elected to the senate three times (!) since the scandal broke. He only received a slap on the wrist from the Senate Ethics Committee, he confessed his mistakes and begged the voters of Arizona for their forgiveness, and they forgave him three times over.

     As a character assault, the Keating 5 provides little traction for Democrats. McCain knows this. He is at his best when the political climate allows him to be pugnacious and confrontational, and bringing up the K5 would give McCain the freedom to dominate the news cycle with Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers, rather than addressing our current economic crisis.

     McCain would win the game of character assassination because these attacks play off the racial stereotypes that blacks are militant, untrustworthy, and violent. Wright and Ayers are especially damaging because they allow Obama to be seen as a radical. And, in Middle America, radicals with black skin are far more frightening than criminals with white collars.

    That is why McCain has recently been trying to bait Obama, daring him to bring up the Keating mess. When Obama briefly mentioned the Savings and Loan crisis of the 80’s in his comments about the current crisis, McCain released an ad, basically a warning shot, that tries to connect Obama to the disgraced former CEO of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines. There is no connection between Obama and Raines other than their skin color (well, Raines is more amber hued, while Obama is a burnt cedar). McCain most recent ad features Rezko and Daley, Jones, and Blagojevich (three dudes no one has heard of outside of Illinois). Count them up; that’s five, The Obama 5.

     Race.

     Race is what ended McCain’s 2000 presidential bid, not the Keating 5. The Rove rumor that McCain fathered a child with a black prostitute didn’t sit well with the voters of South Carolina. Race is why Keating was potentially off limits for Obama.

     I say ‘was’ because the current meltdown has given the Keating 5 a new relevance, and made market regulation sexy again. Democrats want to show McCain looking scared for his life during those senate hearings, with his bad comb-over flopping around, but they need to forget about the sensational aspects of the scandal and focus on the fact that John McCain is a puppet of deregulators. Aggressive deregulation led to the S&L crisis and John McCain’s Keating problem, and it has led to the mortgage crisis and John McCain’s Phil Gramm problem. Why is it that whenever our economy is driven over a cliff John McCain is in the passenger’s seat?

     Wisely, Obama has resisted the Left’s cravings for the red meat of personal attacks, and has given them the tofu of regulation instead. Eat it. Tofu is good for you. 

Of course they do!

From legendary Brittish anarchist punk band, Crass.

The world’s worst musician ever, Kid Rock, has completed his work for the Nation Guard’s new racist video.  I guess I should also mention NASCAR’s bad boy darling, coat tail rider extraordinaire Dale Earnhardt Jr. also appears in the video driving his Chevy race car around the track and also shows his pit crew change his tires or something - which is really exciting if you haven’t seen it before.  Detroit’s most famous gangsta hick hillbilly son, Kid Rock is clear on his view of how America can defend the world from TERROR… just watch below.

With an amazing genre combo of Country, Rap & Rock, America’s Badass Kid Rock’s song for the video is called WARRIOR and it’s a real treat if you love shit music.  The video is the typical Hoo Rah GO USA! themed bullshit with the Kid screaming about Liberty, Red White & Blue blah blah mixed with scenes of clearly Muslim folks running though their village as tanks roll in and helicopters soar like bald eagles above. As little Muslim boys are playing soccer, their ball is inadvertently kicked in front of the “Liberator” Humvee and GI Joey gets out with his massive gun, takes his Black Flys bro glasses off and smiles at the young boy while he kicks his ball to him and saves the day.  The video is really confusing to me and I can’t tell what’s going on - or what the message is - if the American’s are trying to be badass and hunt down “terrorists” or if they’re trying to emulate the Peace Corp and help out the youth of today across the world.  I would imagine the National Guard’s level of compassion to be on the lower side.  I wonder if Kid Rock (aka Bobert Ritchie) thinks about Liberty and Freedom while he’s making sex tapes with 4 strippers and that great band Creed’s Scott Stapp.  It’s so bad that you should really watch it.

Will Monday start of one of those game changing weeks?

I hope so, if there’s any benefit to this economic crisis, it’s a spotlight that’s finally put on unregulated free market capitalism. At least now were talking about the issues instead of being pummeled by countless news cycles featuring Republican water-carriers making ridiculous claims that Obama is really the lying, distasteful candidate and not John McCain. Memes like “McCain invented the Blackberry” (it’s a Canadian company) or the even funnier “McCain can’t use a computer because he got his ass beat as a POW” (a bullshit line I paraphrased that first appeared in an article from the Boston Globe in 2000). I love that one, it rolls fake outrage in with a ploy for sympathy - it’s a bullshit burrito! But it actually spotlights the other problem… an absolutely brain-dead media and consumers that don’t have a second to stop and think.

They’re serioius. Karl Rove was pushing that one hard and Sean Hannity is becoming a broken record with it but he’s still bullshit.

If McCain can hold a microphone up to his face all day, he can type at a computer but he won’t because like other old creepy grandpas that excessively do “thumbs up” and wink a lot, he’s afraid of change and he’s really not that smart. Think about it, we do have pictures in this modern world. Hopefully this clears it up, John McCain can lift his arms up to use a computer.

(he’s looking more Nixonian every day) But he’s really not scheduled to live much longer therefore why would he have any interest in real change?

According to the NYT, John McCain’s campaign insisted on a shorter question-and-answer session for the VP debate, seemingly in part to shield Palin from head-on exchanges with Joe Biden.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

And there’s also this:

On Wednesday, the commission unanimously rejected a proposal sought by advisers to Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee, to have the moderator ask questions and the candidates answer, with no time for unfettered exchanges. (emphasis mine)

This is pretty stunning, because it seems like a clear attempt to protect Palin during the VP debate. The McCain camp might as well have come out and said that Palin is inexperienced on the issues and that they’re worried that she won’t look good in exchanges with Biden. McCain’s camp tried to defend the decision this way:

McCain advisers said they were only somewhat concerned about Ms. Palin’s debating skills compared with those of Mr. Biden, who has served six terms in the Senate, or about his chances of tripping her up. Instead, they say, they wanted Ms. Palin to have opportunities to present Mr. McCain’s positions, rather than spending time talking about her experience or playing defense.

So, McCain’s camp doesn’t want Palin to talk about her experience, the same executive experience that they’ve been touting for weeks. And they don’t want her to play defense. Well, she’d only have to play defense if she wasn’t prepared for an actual debate!

What McCain’s camp is basically saying is that they want Palin and Biden to respond to a question and move on, because they’re fearful that if she gets into an actual debate with Biden, she might come across looking inexperienced and not ready to be a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Now, Palin could be fine in debates. I really have no idea. But, if her recent interviews with Gibson and Hannity are any indication, she still has a lot of brushing up to do on the actual issues. I don’t think repeating that joke about the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom, or about how she put that jet on ebay, or how she said “thanks, but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere is going to fly in the VP debate, which will probably be closely watched given the intense interest in Palin.

10% of China’s supply of liquid milk has been found to be tained with melamine, an industrial chemical. So far, 4 infants have died, about 6,000 are ill, and 150 are said to be suffering from acute kidney failure. The chemical was also found in other dairy products like yoghurt and ice cream. There is a massive recall under way in China and Hong Kong, and Singapore banned the import of all Chinese milk.

This scandal comes after other Chinese exports were found to be tainted with chemicals, including toys, pet food, and tootpaste.

The companies involved apparently used melamine to help them cut production costs. The Chinese companies who used dangerous chemicals in toothpase, toys, and pet food were also trying to cut costs. The Chinese government has a huge problem on its hands, not just domestically, but internationally. They’re either going to have to get serious about regulating their industries, or they’ll pay the price on international markets, which will begin to severely restrict Chinese products due to domestic anger. The onus is on China to ensure that their exports are safe, but given that this is the fourth or fifth scandal to come to light in the last two years, I’m not holding out much hope that they’ll seriously address this problem.

Straight from John McCain, featured in the current (Sept/Oct) issue of the magazine Contingencies.  Go ahead, read it right here.

Drum roll, please…

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation. — John McCain, Fall 2008

Nice.

Fox News just referred to McCain campaign actions as “highly inappropriate, among other things” (disdain AND ambiguity?  nice) via a cease-and-desist letter over Major Garrett’s voice being used in a McCain campaign commercial.

Are the rats jumping ship?  …my sources say no.  Are they developing a self-awareness that breeds journalistic integrity?  …outlook not so good.  How about fighting to save face in an economy of opinion that is (finally, blissfully) turning against them?  …most likely.  And is this funny?  …as I see it, yes.

Read the letter (PDF) here

Don’t call it a comeback! Our least favorite dude from VH1’s White Rapper Show (what? no second season?), John Brown (King of the Burbz, Ghetto Rival… yeah, yeah), who actually kinda surprised us at the end of the season with the almost-sleeper-hit “Car Wars” comes back with another political anthem to confuse and amuse.

As Highbridnation says the song is… “actually better that you might think it will be” which is one step below “not that bad”. I won’t go that far, but I will say “entertaining”.

We report, you decide. Have a listen here to “Sarah Palin (I Wanna Lay Pipe)”

(Photos, including the one where he’s desecrating the “B” were jacked from his myspace page)

This has been getting a lot of attention today. In a radio interview, McCain floundered when asked whether he would meet with Spanish PM Zapatero. The question came after he was asked about Chavez, Raul Castro, and Morales. At first, it seemed like McCain didn’t quite understand the question about Spain. But, the questioner said she was talking about Spain, but McCain said the following:

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.

The questioner again clarified:

“But what about Europe? I’m talking about the President of Spain.”

McCain: “What about me, what?

“Are you willing to meet with him if you’re elected president?”

McCain: “I am wiling to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for humans rights, democracy and freedom. And I will stand up to those who do not.”

Now, the charitable interpretation here is that McCain had some trouble understanding the questioner at first, perhaps because of her accent. But, instead of asking her exactly what she was talking about, he went off about how he’d meet with leaders who are for human rights and democracy, as if the Spanish PM is against human rights and Spain isn’t a democracy. He also kept talking about Latin America, and Spain isn’t exactly in Latin America. Even if you think McCain didn’t understand her (again, that’s charitable), it still shows that McCain would rather come up with some bogus answer than admit that he wasn’t sure what her question was about. Well, McCain’s camp cleared up the confusion. His chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Sheunemann, emailed this statement to reporters:

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.

Of course, if McCain knew exactly who the questioner was talking about, then why exactly did he start talking about Latin America and take such a sharp tone with a NATO ally?  So, either McCain didn’t know what he was talking about and confused Spain with Latin America, not exactly coming off too well, or he knew exactly what he was saying, and he and his campaign just wanted the Spanish PM to know that he blows. That’s exactly the kind of foreign policy we need…telling our allies to suck it.

Yeah, you’re right, this looks pretty strong:

Photo Credit: Scott Sady / AP

Read all about it: Tent Cities Rise with Foreclosures