McCain in the Membrane

Not a very good day for John McCain.

First, I completely agree with Christopher Orr's assessment of the Zapatero gaffe:

Having listened to the interview a few times now (you can find it here), I think it's abundantly clear that McCain wasn't paying close attention and misunderstood the question. Moreover, I don't think it's a terribly embarrassing mistake: The interviewer did have a pretty strong accent, and her followup questions weren't very well framed.

What's shocking is that, rather than own up to this excusable error, the McCain camp has dug in, claiming that McCain understood every word and meant exactly what he said. As McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Schuenemann wrote in an email to the Washington Post:

The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero (and id'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President [sic] Zapatero in this interview.

Really? That's clearly not how McCain felt back in April when he explained, "I would like for [Zapatero] to visit the United States. I am very interested not only in normalizing relations with Spain but in obtaining good and productive relations with the goal of addressing many issues and challenges that we have to confront together." And even if McCain had for some reason cooled to the idea of a Zapatero visit over the past few months, it would not explain his repeated references to Latin America when asked about the possibility of a meeting.

The evidence seems pretty overwhelming that John McCain made an excusable mistake in the interview, but his campaign has tried to cover it up with an inexcusable falsehood, one that may significantly complicate relations with a NATO ally should he be elected.

This episode really says something about McCain's governing style. He would rather damage our relations with a key ally than admit a simple mistake. God forbid he admit that he misheard a question.

And this is an even worse mistake. It's absurd that after being in Washington for 26 years, McCain thinks the president can just fire the head of the SEC. It's also more than a little inaccurate and irresponsible to suggest that leadership at the SEC and "short-selling" are the real problems here. Our current economic woes are the result of inadequate regulation and oversight of the mortgage industry and shadow banking world combined with a monetary policy that kept rates too low for too long. There's no quick fix to this. We've dug ourselves into a deep hole and there's no elevator back to the top.