John McCain Confuses Germany and Russia
Who cares, they’re all the same. Right?
Right?
Stuff like that is, quite simply, infuriating. There’s no reason to confuse Germany and Russia, the two countries aren’t even almost the same. And Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, is quite easy to recognize. First off all she’s a she, second of all, George W. Bush seems to enjoy touching her in inappropriate places and at inappropriate times.
Vladimir Putin (if that name isn’t a give way I don’t know what is) on the other hand, is Russia’s president. Russia is the heir of the Soviet Union. Perhaps McCain remembers that the Cold War was between… wait for it… the US and the Soviet Union.
Via.
Via.
hmmm unless he’s a repeat offender, I’d be pretty certain this was a mild slip-up. I think he probably knows the difference between the two and was being absent minded. I worry much more about the Sunni/Shiia mixup because I have the impression that "Mr. National Security" really wasn’t aware of who was who. I really can’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to realize the difference between Russia and Germany. Hell I bet even Bush knows who the president of Russia is, though maybe not Germany.
Of course he knows Germany Claudia. He even flirted with Germany’s Chancellor. Well, he touched her, which freaked her out.
Actually, Putin hired ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to run the so-called "Friendship" Pipeline which is actually an instrument of control over German NATO policy, the way Putin has employed it. And lest we forget, Putin was the chief KGB in East Germany before the Wall fell down, and had the Stasi seeing-eye dogs under his firm control. As he still does the feckless Schroeder.So metaphorically, McCain may actually have been making a point, as Putin was perhaps the chief "German expert" in the KGB. The ex-KGB nomenklatura now run Russia, & Russia virtually has a veto on German policies through economic blackmail via its oxymoronic "Friendship" Pipeline gas pricing. If it is a gaffe, it isn’t as bad as Obama thinking the US has 57 states or even more!
How old is that clip? He wasn’t in Germany this past weekend.
I’m sure he remembers giving a backrub to a head of state that freaked out, but I wouldn’t be so certain that he knows or remembers that it was the Chancellor of Germany he was uhm, petting. He might certainly, but I wouldn’t put it past him not to remember.
Gotta give credit to ole Bill - he’d have scored with her - or at least left a bad taste in her mouth.
"he remembers giving a backrub to a head of state that freaked out"
That was President Bush at a G8 summit two or three years ago.
In the video, McCain is referring to the Munich Security Conference of 2007:
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/591-Munich-Security-Conference-Clear-Messages-Instead-of-Icy-Silence.html
This is most obviously a mild misspeaking.
Mixing up two countries is not a big deal. Perhaps he was thinking about Germany, it could be a Freudian slip.
The difference is, examine Obama’s recent slip-ups:
– Not knowing about how many states there are, he actually paused and thought about it, and then finally said "I visited uh…. 57 states"… This wasn’t a slip-up it was a factual mistake, because he didn’t know how many states there are.
– Claiming that his great uncle liberated Auschwitz a famous death camp very well known to the world, instead of Buchenwald a lesser known work-camp, means that Obama knew it, but said Auschwitz instead because he knew how strongly people would be affected by the story. Not to mention the speech had nothing to do with WWII. It was an intentional politically planned mistake, and they knew if someone "caught it", they would just say "ah well it’s a family story".
The mistakes of McCain are nothing compared to the serious mistakes of Obama. Seriously, objectively review each mistake by Obama and compare it to McCain.
As a Liberal Democrat, I can see Obama for who he is… Why can’t you?
Armenian genocide, that’s such BS it’s funny. Right, a guy who graduated top of his class at Harvard Law doesn’t know the number of states…suuuuuuure, that makes plenty of sense.
Personally I don’t even know my great uncle’s name, let alone what he did in his life. If I were to learn about it I’m sure I’d make a ton of mistakes while repeating it. It could be he used Auschwitz on purpose. It could as easily been a mistake. In any event I find it highly entertaining when someone goes after Obama because his uncle simply helped liberate a different concentration camp. Yes, it sooo substracts from the story of heroism. Please do not stop reminding people that members of Obama’s family fought heroically in WWII and helped liberate Nazi prisoners, I’m sure it’ll really hurt Obama.
Claudia, actually that was an important slip-up and… graduating from Harvard means you’re intelligent, not that you know all important facts. Something tells me they did not spend a whole lot of time explaining how many states the US has at Harvard.
As for Obama himself; I’m one of his most passionate opponents in the blogosphere
Oh c’mon Michael, 1st graders know there are 50 states. It’s not so much that it’s an important fact, it’s that it’s such a basic fact that it’s absurd to think that any non-mentally challenged adult wouldn’t know it. You’ll notice that not a lot of Americans have made a big fuss about it, just some jokes. That’s because no one, not even the rightwing, really believes Obama doesn’t know how many states there are.
This McCain thing is a tad more complex because though everyone over 8 knows how many states there are it IS concievable that a (very ignorant) adult could confuse Russia and Germany in terms of heads of state. I still think it’s a simple gaffe, not a sign of actual ignorance, and as you know I’m not exactly McCain’s base. Again, I doubt this is a sign of anything, but I wouldn’t be so sure about the Sunni/Shiia mixup, which actually COULD show a lack of knowledge, I think.
Chris is right, this is an old video being recycled just to take jabs at McCain.
It’s a simple verbal gaffe, just like Obama’s 57 states remark. In both cases, it’s pretty obvious that the speaker’s mind intertwined two different thoughts so that the sentence came out wrong (in Obama’s case, he meant to say 47 states initially- that makes the math work out right- but since we’re so accustomed to speaking of ‘50 states’ he probably mixed 50 with the 47 and didn’t even realize he’d done it. In McCain’s case, he was talking about being in Germany and then accidentally repeated that country’s name when he obviously meant to say Russia.)
Of course this doesn’t stop certain liberal bloggers from using McCain’s gaffe as proof of senility, even though Obama also makes similar misstatements.
If it happened once, it could be considered mis-speaking. But McCain has confused a series of countries and — most disconcertingly — ethnicities in Iraq (Sunni/Shia, al Qaeda/Iran). Not good for a guy who claims to be running on his international experience. Here is just a quick list I came up with via the Google (there must be more):
Iraq/Pakistan border (no such border):
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/07/mccain_appears.html
Sudan/Somalia:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/30/mccain-confuses-sudan-and-somalia/
Czechoslavakia (has not existed for 15 years):
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/mccain-keeps-me.html
Sunni/Shia:
http://uspolitics.tribe.net/thread/e7c28949-397a-4f65-bf53-cd91c258bd86
al Quaeda/Iran:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/18/132146/765/825/479209