Remember The Maine! McCain Refuses To Say Whether He Would Meet With Spanish Prime Minister/President Zapatero

In an interview with Radio Caracol in Miami, McCain either unintentional or intentionally stepped into some hot water with United States ally - Spain - by refusing to say whether he would meet with Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero.  Here’s a transcript of the interview.  You can listen to audio here.

Interviewer: Senator, finally, let’s talk about Spain.  If you are elected president, would you be willing to invite President Jose Rodriguez Zapatero to the White House? To meet with you?

McCain: I would be willing to meet with those leaders who [are] our friends and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion.  And by the way, President Calderon of Mexico is fighting a very very tough fight against the drug cartels.  I am glad we are now working in cooperation with the Mexican government on the Merida plan.  And, I intend to move forward with relations and invite as many of them as I can, or those leaders, to the White House.

Interviewer: Would that invitation be extended to the Zapatero government, to the president itself?

McCain: I don’t, you know, honestly I have to look at the relations and the situations and the priorities.  But, I can assure you, I will establish closer relations with our friends and I will stand up to those who want to do harm to the United States of America.  I know how to do both.

Interviewer: So, you have to wait and see if he is willing to meet with you? Or, if you would be able to do in the White House?

McCain: Well, again.  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.

Interviewer: Okay. But, what about you? I am talking about the President of Spain.

McCain: What about me, what?

Interviewer: 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.

So what exactly does this mean?  Two possibilities:

• Either McCain doesn’t know who Zapatero is, which would undermine his experience argument just a bit; or,
• McCain knows who Zapatero is and was intentionally being evasive in order to continue Bush’s posture vis-a-vis Zapatero’s administration.

McCain’s foreign policy advisor, Randy Sheunemann, issued a statement to Washington Post which suggests that McCain’s answer was intentional, but did not explain the rationale behind McCain’s refusal to meet with Zapatero:

“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.

The Bush Administration and Zapatero do not have strong relations and those relations were further strained when Zapatero pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq.  Indeed, it is quite conceivable that McCain was sending a message to Zapatero.

Further buttressing the possibility that McCain was intentionally spurning Zapatero are things like the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, attending the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago.  Aguirre is of the same political party as former Spanish President Aznar - the PP.  Aznar was an ally of the Bush Administration and had strong relations with them.  Aguirre herself has been vocal of her support for John McCain this election.  Further, Aguirre and Zapatero are strong opponents in Spanish Politics.  Perhaps McCain is making it clear that the more conservative PP party is more palpable than Zapatero’s Spanish Socialist Workers Party.  Yikes, this is certainly some hot water to tread into before even assuming office. [h/t to Matthew Stuckwish for pointing out Aguirre's presence at the RNC and the tension between Aguirre and Zapatero]

On the other hand, perhaps McCain just wasn’t sure who Zapatero was.  TPM’s Josh Marshall is convinced that McCain was confused:

The most logical explanation of this gaffe is that McCain got asked about Zapatero right after being asked about Chavez, Castro and Morales. Not remembering who Zapatero was, he assumed he must be some other Latin American tinpot dictator and answered the question accordingly. We could be generous and assume he was just upping the ante on the normal neocon line. But by repeatedly referring to Spain as a country in Latin America, McCain just doesn’t make that interpretation tenable for any fair-minded reader.

Face it, he got confused.

Maybe so.  Certainly that wouldn’t be good for McCain if he didn’t know who the Spanish leader was.  But, I would rather McCain just be unsure who Zapatero is than have it be the case that he’s already picking fights with governments that don’t see eye-to-eye with him 100%.  Either way, McCain’s answer is somewhat troubling.