Another reason for taking the Spanish interview episode seriously: it can't be that McCain was caught by surprise by these questions.  Surely the interview was scheduled and the likely direction of its questions known or easy to predict.  Where were McCain's briefers and minders?  Was there no one to prep him by reminding him of the name of the Spanish prime minister? was there no one on hand to whisper to him that Spain was not in Latin America?

I agree with the prevailing interpretation of McCain's Spanish interview, though I thought McCain seemed even more out of it than reported. Listening near the end of the interview, it seemed to me that McCain scarcely heard the interviewer trying to redirect him to Europe. The needle had gotten stuck on Latin America.  In their next to last exchange you can hear him quite clearly finishing, ". . . the importance of our relationship with Latin America"--even though the original question had directly been whether he would invite Zapatero to the White House. The interviewer tries again, by asking about explicitly about Europe (as distinct from Latin America), but it sounds like McCain is in a hurry to end the interview, and repeats a boilerplate piece of his earlier answer about being ready to meet with our friends and stand up to those who aren't friendly. I would be hard pressed to say what question he thought he was answering. More than a little disturbing.