People have been assuming that John McCain couldn’t possibly have been meaning to articulate a “no meetings with the Spanish prime minister” policy largely because that would be a crazy policy. But Ben Armbruster observes that George W. Bush appears to have an unofficial version of this policy in place. Spain is a democratic NATO ally and EU member, with troops in Afghanistan and the world’s eighth largest economy but the Bush administration has been pursuing a grudge against José Zapatero’s opposition to the Iraq War. Armbruster has all the details of Bush’s various senseless snubs, but suffice it to say that over the years the only Bush-Zapatero meeting has been at the April 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest when it was unavoidable. McCain, plausibly, was just making this into official policy.
Meanwhile, a reader suggests that Moxy Fruvous’ “King of Spain” may be relevant here:
Clearly the line “It’s laissez faire, I don’t even give a care” is the link between McCain’s odd new Spain policy and his unsound approach to financial regulation.
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