God listening to that interview, he even SOUNDS old. He sounds almost like my grandfather.
Doubly nice, Zapatero is a Prime Minister, not a President.
Heh…and that’s coming from McCain’s SENIOR FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR! Not only is he a foreign policy dunce, but the “experts” he surrounds himself with are, too.
Oooohhkaaayy.
People who have shit for brains never believe they do. In fact they’re usually quite dogmatic about defending the ludicrously indefensible. “Liberals hate America. They want terrorists to win.” “Evolution doesn’t exist because the Bible says so!” “John McCain wouldn’t lie because he was a POW!” “You can’t be a real Christian if you don’t vote Republican.”
And my favorite neocon absurdity: “I believe in minimal governmental intrusion into the lives of citizens. Except my side has a clear, God-mandated duty to dictate morality for the masses. Which doesn’t really count as intruding intruding since it’s a holy mission and all.”
Those are just righty-shit-for-brains. Don’t get me started on the leftist loonies.
Anybody whose vote can’t stand up to message board chatter, yes, has shit for brains too. I doubt anyone’s mind has been changed by all the endless political threads. People will vote the way they want and rationalize why.
That was meant to be tongue in cheek. I guess it fell flat.
We must get the foot of regulation off the neck of business… That was Reagan. He started this whole mess that is exploding. he was a shitty president and endlessly wrong. I hope his legacy takes a hit for his destruction of regulation.
The Spanish actually refer to him as President, as his formal position is president of the council of ministers. Indeed, the interviewer refers to him as President. So I’d say President would be a perfectly reasonable thing to call him, once one has figured out who he is. 
Oh.
It’s El Presidente del Gobierno in Spanish and El Presidente for short. The literal translation is “President of he Government”, but Prime Minister is prefered to avoid confusion (as Spain is a monarchy).
Well, I couldn’t say how common it is in spoken usage but I can tell you for sure that it’s commonly seen written on walls.
Pretty good Huffington Post commentary on the gaffe/no-gaffe. So is it somehow better that McCain is willing to throw away a NATO ally rather than admit he fucked up? The guy is scary–I mean like “duck & cover” level scary. I don’t want anybody in the White House who thinks it’s a good idea to just make diplomatic decisions based on whim or random impulse.
A NATO member! A fucking NATO member and he either blew the leader off with shit they usually keep for the likes of Iran or Syria or he didn’t know who he was.
A fucking NATO member. That’s shameful folks no matter what way the truth lies.
Spanish soldiers went to Iraq and Afghanistan and had a very large terrorist attack for their reward and this is how a possible leader of their supposed friend and ally treats their leader 
I hear ya. I work for NATO currently. I’ll have to apologize to my spanish coworkers tomorrow. What a dickweed.
Hoepefully this will get plenty of play in the spanish language newspapers and news broadcasts. I’m sure this won’t win McCain anymore votes in the hispanic community. It hits pretty close to the “they all look alike” thing.*
I really need to let go of my hatred for Nixon, who I’ve blamed for many years for the breakdown of civility in politics.
Nixon was fucking Gandhi compared to Reagan and Shrub.
And Bush senior --it’s too bad he didn’t hear a voice out of a burning tree asking him to sacrifice his sons.
Serves you right for going to BoJangles
Ew.
I thought it was pretty good actually as I understood the witty play on percentages it referenced. Of course if you have to explain it…
Yep. He is both. But more commonly referred to as ‘President’ than P.M.
As to ‘figuring out who he is’ delusions of Spanish grandeur aside, you’d think educated people – never mind a US Presidential candidate – would know something about Spain, not only a NATO ally, but with troop deployments in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon (UNIFIL). We are also talking about a country which is inside the world’s ten largest economies and second largest landmass in Europe only after France. Lastly, as an ally and a possible link to L.A., Spain is only second to the US in total investments in the region.
Won’t even mention the US naval and air force bases located in geostrategic Spain.
Good on you, but I doubt your colleagues will take much affront for the time being. He is not, at least not yet, the voice of America. From what I’ve read in my prior link to El Pais (one of Spain’s newspaper’s of record and the one with the largest circulation) his comments where mostly treated with derision and scorn – with a large helping of incriminating ignorance on his part.
However, if such a sad event happens to occur, I think you’ll find greater division between many Western European NATO members and the US of A. Irreconcilable even.
Best of luck to all of you in the crucial election. No doubt there’s a hell of a lot riding on it. Like the future of map of the world in terms of alliances. Literally.
Nowadays, I’m taking a more kindly view of the man himself-if only because I don’t think he was the one in charge-Ronnie was a figurehead. I don’t think he was the one running the show. His administration, on the other hand…
(But yeah, shitty president, totally)
ETA: one wonders what might happen if McCain had happened to meet with Juan Carlos…
The claim now is that he knew exactly who the man is, he just doesn’t want to meet with him.
That’ll teach Spain, by Og.