by Jeff Fecke, September 18, 2008 • Okay, look, not everybody is going to know who the King of Spain* is, but if you’re a U.S. Presidential candidate who prides himself on your nigh-infinite knowledge of the world and your ability to lead from day one, and you’re doing an interview with Spanish media, you might want to know that first, Juan Carlos I is the King of Spain, but only has ceremonial powers, and second, that the actual governmental leader in Spain is José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, of the PSOE.
If you’re John McCain, you get an “incomplete” on the first, and an epic fail on the second:
So McCain is the candidate with the foreign policy experience ready to lead on day one. But he doesn’t know who the leader of Spain is. He gets confused in an interview, apparently thinking Zapatero is someone from Latin America who is an enemy of the United States and manages to create a minor international incident.
Jeff Fecke is a freelance writer who lives in Eagan, Minnesota.In addition to his own blog, Blog of the Moderate Left, he also contributes to Alas, a Blog, Minnesota Campaign Report, and AlterNet. Fecke has appeared as a guest on the “Today” show, the Alan Colmes radio show, and the Mark Heaney Show. Fecke is divorced, and the father of one really terrific daughter. His debut novel, The Valkyrie’s Tale, will available for sale in September.
Spain, of course, is:
1. Not in Latin America
2. A NATO Ally
3. Not in Latin America
4. A NATO Ally
I mean, for God’s sake, I understand that Joe Bagadonutz might not be able to name the Prime Minister of Spain. If pressed before tonight, I wouldn’t have been able to name the Prime Minister of Spain, and I live for random trivial knowledge like that.**
But I’m not running for President on a platform of being able to bring Mavericky Change with Experience. I’m not making my superior awareness of foreign policy the centerpiece of my attacks on my opponent. If I were, I’d make sure that I actually knew my stuff.
But knowing your stuff is evidently too much to ask of a maverick like John McCain. And so McCain tonight has managed to insult a critical ally. Badly. He had no clue what he was talking about. That’s not change we can believe in, my friends. Indeed, it’s all too much of the same.
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*I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign, but it’s my destiny to be the King of Spain.
**To my legion of Spanish readers, please understand that I hold you in the highest regard, and that I could at least have stated correctly that the leftists were in charge. Heck, I even know an officer in the Spanish Army. For real! What up, Ignacio?
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