What’s with GOP presidents and GOP president-wannabees and Spanish leaders?

[KansDem]

From 2001

Bush on tricky foreign mission

The BBC correspondent in Madrid says that as one of Europe's few remaining Conservative leaders, Mr Aznar is a natural ally for the US president.

However, the US president, prone to gaffes in English, has already risked upsetting his hosts in an interview in Spanish by mispronouncing the name of the prime minister.

"It is a great honour to travel to Spain and visit the King and also Prime Minister Anzar. But I have to practise the very pretty language, and unless I practise I am going to destroy this language," he said in a Spanish TV interview broadcast on Monday.

BBC

From DU today

Radio Caracol Miami: Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you are elected President, would you be willing to invite President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the White House to meet with you?

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

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

Obviously I'd 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.

So you have to wait and see if he is willing to meet with you - will you be able to do it in the White House?

Well, again, I don't - all I can tell you is I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends to us, and standing up to those who are not, and that's judged on the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.

OK, what about Europe - I'm talking about the president of Spain?

(pause)

What about the what?

Are you willing to meet with him if you're elected president?

I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights, democracy and freedom, and I will stand up to those that do not.

DU thread

I mean, I can understand the chimp getting the Spanish president’s name wrong, but isn’t McCain supposed to be a “foreign policy expert" especially when he makes statements like, I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere?

Can it get any more pathetic than this?