I have to agree with the majority of the posts above. I don't think that the initial interview was such a huge mistake, and I don't think the story is worth pursuing. As Josh Marshall points out, the previous questions had all been about Latin America and when the interviewer switched gears, he misunderstood her or missed her "let's talk about Spain," and answered the question as though the head of state in question were someone in the Chavez, Castro, Morales camp. When she specified said "what about Europe" he heard "what about you"--forgivable given her accent.

Now the response of the McCain campaign is more questionable. Rather than admitting a mistake, the have chosen to further offend the Spaniards.

Still, there are enough distortions and red herrings in this campaign and enough genuine issues to focus on. Better to drop this.

Posted at September 19, 2008 1:21 PM in response to TPMtv: McCain's Spanish Fly