To piggyback on Hampton’s postabout McCain’s Zapatero “gaffe,” I’d bet dollars to donuts that betweenthe interviewer’s strong accent and the fact that she’d beenquestioning him about Latin American leftist leaders, he thought shehad made a reference to the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. The factthat immediately afterwards he referred to Mexican President FelipeCalderon seems like a pretty strong tell. And as Hampton says, afterthat, there was a lot of cross talk that could explain why he neverheard the references to Spain. That was my first reaction when I sawthe story, and afterwards I noticed that Joshua Keating over at FP Passport mentioned the possibility in passing as well.
The McCain campaign’s reaction baffles me as much as it does Hampton. I couldn’t really seeMcCain kicking back with Subcomandante Marcos, and if that’s who hethought the interviewer was referring to, I think he would have gotten a pass bysimply saying so afterwards.