When McCain said last night," Iran is an existential state", what word was he trying to say?

[chelsea0011]

I assume he really didn't mean to use the word existential, but for the love of me I have no idea what word he was trying to find in his brain.

[Xipe Totec]

1. He was going for 'existential threat' (to Israel) nt

[chelsea0011]

2. Thanks, I had no idea.

[Ino]

3. Ever since Chimpy allegedly read a Camus novel...

the existential word has been a favorite Repuke word.

[TransitJohn]

4. Existential

Ex`is*ten"tial\, a. Having existence. {Archaic}

Of course he'd mean the archaic definition. :evilgrin:

[jpertello]

5. exponential doesn't make sense

So did he mean Existential State? Like what are they reading in Iran? Nietzsche?

[DailyGrind51]

6. He just wanted to show that, unlike "W", he could use words with more than one syllable!

[rucky]

7. It's sitting at a cafe in Paris, quoting Sartre

and pondering the absurdities of life.

[K Gardner]

8. Crap.. coffee spew. Rucky !!