McCain's fitness questioned

Even John McCain's Rovian-trained handlers must be tearing their hair lately, trying to spin his gaffes, misstatements, and confused answers. To say nothing of his lies and flip-flops.

The latest is now playing out in the international media and beginning to seep into our own news cycle. In an interview by a Spanish radio station, he seemed not to know who the president of Spain is, or even perhaps confused Spain with Latin American countries. The interviewer said, "Let's talk about Spain," then asked if as president he would meet with President Zapatero. He gave some vague generic answer about establishing closer relations with our friends and standing up to those who want to do harm to the U.S.

When pressed for an anwer to whether he would meet with Zapatero, he said: "all I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends with us, and standing up to those who are not, and that's judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America, and the entire region."

When she reminded him she was talking about the President of Spain, he sounded confused. For the interview transcript, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/18/mccain-meant-to-reject-sp_n_127449.html

OK. And we're worring about simple things like Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from the presidency and not having foreign policy credentials.

As a psychoanalyst, I agree with my profession's ethical prohibition against making diagnostic statements about public figures. However, that does not prevent me from observing, just as major news sources are now beginning to do, that McCain often seems confused, makes glaring misstatements of facts, seems uninformed about his supposed expert area of foreign affairs, and reverses and contradicts himself without seeming to be aware of it.

I say this as a liberal, progressive blogger addicted to spouting off, and not in my professional role: I am seriously worried about John McCain's mental fitness to be president. He often seems to be not just old, a sloppy thinker, and given to risky decisions but possibly even showing signs of cognitive impairment.

Perhaps there is some other explanation. Has he perhaps been keeping secret that he is deaf and doesn't hear questions? Does he have such anxiety that his thinking gets confused when he's on the spot, but is clear as a bell behind his desk making executive decisions? Is it an act, to appear stupid? Maybe there's another explanation, but I'm waiting to hear something other than spin.

We should be very very worried about the prospects of an impaired McCain, backed up by a ridiculously unprepared vice president Palin, being put in charge of the (once) most powerful country in the world.

Ralph