By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 09:56 PM
 Steve Benen, formerly of The Carpetbagger Report, gives us what may be the best perspective on McCain’s recent confusion over Spain.
Let’s also not lose sight of the broader pattern. McCain thinks the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia was “the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War.” He thinks Iraq and Pakistan share a border. He believes Czechoslovakia is still a country. He’s been confused about the difference between Sudan and Somalia. He’s been confused about whether he wants more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, more NATO troops in Afghanistan, or both. He’s been confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq. He’s been confused about whether the U.S. can maintain a long-term presence in Iraq. He’s been confused about Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda. He’s been confused about the difference between Sunni and Shi’ia. McCain, following a recent trip to Germany, even referred to “President Putin of Germany.” All of this incoherence on his signature issue.
I’m curious. What do you suppose the reaction would be from the political establishment if Barack Obama had made these mistakes over the course of the campaign? What would reporters, pundits, and Republicans have to say about Obama’s ability to lead a complex world in a time of war and uncertainty?
I think an intellectually honest person would agree that if Obama had made these same mistakes he’d be labeled “clueless” on foreign policy. So, why the double-standard?
That’s exactly right. McCain’s strength is supposedly his foreign policy knowledge. Remember Charlie Black said that Palin’s lack of expertise on the issue would be forgiven because she’ll be able to learn “at the foot of the master,” and the master himself is now sitting at nearly a dozen, a dozen, major mistakes on the subject of foreign policy. Not little oopsies, but serious errors either of judgment or factual knowledge.
And yet we’re supposed to believe that McCain is this hard-nosed expert ready to take the reigns of the country and steer it in the right direction while teaching his VP all about it. Obama can’t even have a slip of the tongue before his judgment is questioned, I cannot imagine what would have happened if he was making this kind of volume of mistakes.
By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 09:10 PM
 I’d imagine life for George W Bush is pretty rough right now. His party is disowning him, hyping up the fact that their ticket is going to “change” Washington and distancing themselves from everything he’s done. His war is going disastrously and now the economy’s collapsing. But don’t worry, he’s working on it.
Bush was supposed to spend the day in Alabama and Florida raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. He canceled his trip and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to sub for him at the fundraisers to focus on the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression.
“The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy,” Bush said. “And I share their concerns.”
Really, is there any question now that he’s the worst president of all time? He’s got the anti-Midas touch, everything he aims at turns into a flaming pile of crap. He’s going to leave office with two (hopefully only two) wars going, a hole in the ground where the WTC used to be, the biggest economic downturn in history, and potentially the lowest approval rating. Ouch.
By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 09:05 PM
 Obligatory reminder that Palin is still moronic. Real news to come afterwards.
So Palin’s on the stump talking about how she’s gonna shake up Washington and “fix it” or something. As evidence, she points to a brilliant idea… that Obama already had.
We’re going to do a few new things also,” she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. “For instance, as Alaska’s governor, I put the government’s checkbook online so that people can see where their money’s going. We’ll bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability back. We’re going to bring that back to D.C.”
There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.
In 2006 and 2007, Obama teamed up with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to pass the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as “Google for Government.” The act created a free, searchable web site – USASpending.gov — that discloses to the public all federal grants, contracts, loans and insurance payments.
Palin might also have noted that her running mate, John McCain, was an original co-sponsor of the 2006 transparency bill that became law.
Palin’s “response” is that she wasn’t talking about that bill specifically, she just meant “that kind of transparency in general.”
My question: even if that’s true, doesn’t the fact that the two guys running for president already did that hint that your idea isn’t particularly new?
By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 02:30 PM
 I’m expecting this to get even worse as we go.
So McCain’s talking to a Spanish reporter, and he gets asked about Spanish PM Zapatero and whether a McCain administration would welcome him into the White House. In a bizarre series of responses, McCain seems to reject Spain as an ally, forget that the country isn’t in Latin America, talks about Mexico for a while, and then goes on a rant about “those who would harm” us.
TPM has a great analysis of the situation, positing three possible erasons this went down the way it did. Marshall thinks Option 3 makes sense:
Option #3: Through some mixture of confusion and inability to understand the interviewer’s accent, McCain was confused about who he was talking about and decided to wing it, assuming that the person he was being asked about was some other left-wing strong man from Latin America and answering with the standard boilerplate about standing up to America’s enemies.
This gaffe definitely is permeating into the media. I don’t just mean the predictable Politico article, TIME is even jumping on the bandwagon. They aren’t buying his campaign’s claim that he 100% understood the question and meant what he said. I would hope this isn’t the case, because if he intentionally gave a nonsensical answer, that’s just strange.
Just add this one to the pile, folks.
By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 01:27 PM
McCain’s brilliant plan to fix Social Security.
The way I would fix Social Security is to sit down with Republicans and Democrats together at a table, voicing my opposition to tax increases, and sitting down and negotiating a fix to Social Security, which is the only way that Social Security is going to be fixed. That’s my solution to the Social Security system.
Genius.
By Hanlon, on September 18th, 2008 at 01:09 AM
 Remember how McCain kept riding Obama because he wouldn’t do that stupid “town hall” nonsense? Aside from the fact that there’s no reason to do a debate like that when we’ve got actual debates to look forward to, the real motive has been discovered. McCain’s motive, mind.
McCain town hall style meetings are generally open to the public where anyone may wait in line on the day of the event and come in without an advanced invitation.
However, at tonight’s 3,500 person townhall in Grand Rapids, Michigan–the first time Palin is taking questions from the public– only ticketholders are allowed in.
The McCain campaign confirms that tonight’s event was advertised on the McCain/Palin Web site and local newspapers. People had to pick up their tickets at local GOP offices after RSVPing for the event.
So to show up, you had to register on McCain’s website and pick up the tickets at a GOP headquarters. The McCain camp’s defense that “none of the questions are being pre-screened” is transparently stupid as well. The questions don’t need to be pre-screened if your audience bought tickets through your website. It’s a pretty safe bet they aren’t going to grill ‘er.
Boy, they REALLY don’t want these two to have to answer questions, do they?
UPDATE: Speaking of the town hall in question, despite having a pre-ticketed audience, Palin still failed at a softball question, disastrously.
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