Note to McCain: Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore
This is almost certainly going to sound nitpicky, if not actually petty, but bear with me. It’s not unreasonable to note that John McCain continues to make references to a country that doesn’t exist.
At a press conference in Phoenix today, for example, McCain referenced Czechoslovakia. Again.
“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech’s agreement with us concerning missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the Cold War, is also a concern. So we see the tensions between Russia and their neighbors, as well as Russia and the United States are somewhat increasing.”
On first blush, this sounds like more antagonistic rhetoric towards Russia — which McCain wants to kick out of the G8 — which isn’t especially helpful.
But more importantly, Russia can’t “reduce energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.” Czechoslovakia, of course, doesn’t exist. It split into two countries more than 15 years ago. McCain has actually been to the Czech Republic and Slovakia since they became independent countries, and he’s met with their leaders.
So, McCain slipped up. He’s 71 and this is going to happen from time to time, right? Well, there’s a little more to it than that.
First, as Greg Sargent noted, McCain has made this same mistake more than once during the campaign. About three months ago, McCain vowed to “work closely with Czechoslovakia” on missile defense. Last fall, during a Republican debate, McCain said: “The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what his objections are to it.”
Second, before Republicans condemn Dems for being picky on this, let’s not forget that in the 2000 campaign, when McCain also screwed up Czechoslovakia, it was none other than George W. Bush who said it deserved to be a campaign issue: “A guy gets up and quizzes me [on world leaders] … but John McCain says something about the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia [there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia], but yet it didn’t make the nightly national news.”
Look, I know this was just another verbal slip. McCain has been incompetent about foreign affairs for quite a while, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s relatively inconsequential that he keeps referencing a country that ceased to be in 1993. He’s said far worse.
But the raison d’etre of John McCain’s entire presidential campaign is the notion that he’s an expert on foreign policy, thanks to his decades of experience as a Washington insider. When the foreign policy expert keeps referencing a non-existent country, it’s not unreasonable to mention that maybe his expertise isn’t quite as impressive as his campaign and the political media establishment would like us to believe.
Put it this way — in August 2007, Barack Obama mentioned “the president of Canada” in a debate. Canada, of course, has a prime minister, not a president. Obama had made a mistake. What happened? Political reporters pounced (see here, here, here, and here, for example), mocking Obama’s error and highlighting the gaffe as evidence that he’s “too inexperienced to become commander in chief.”
At the time, David Frum argued, “Barack Obama refers to the ‘president of Canada,’ the kind of misstep that would cost a Republican candidate for president dearly.”
It seems Frum had it backwards. The media jumped all over Obama’s inconsequential error. McCain, meanwhile, makes mistakes like this all the time, almost always with no media scrutiny at all.
How much attention do you suppose McCain’s Czechoslovakia mistake will get?
How much attention do you suppose McCain’s Czechoslovakia mistake will get?
About the same amount that they paid to the fact that McCain divorced his first wife to marry a beer heiress about half his age.
Not much.
Oh come on; it’s not like he called it Bohemia.
IOKIYAR
Give it time, and McFoggy-Thought will be talking about our problems with Iran being fomented by those nasty Soviets.
i don’t know if you have heard about this, but near bohemia there is this upstart named von bismark… otto, i think. we need to watch that guy! he could pose a threat to our horseless carriage industry.
Czechoslovakia, of course, doesn’t exist. It split into two countries more than 15 years ago. McCain has actually been to the Czech Republic and Slovakia since they became independent countries, and he’s met with their leaders.
Maybe jeff and the rest of McCain’s apologists are correct about presidential candidates needing to be world travelers. Imagine how confused McCain would be if he hadn’t visited eastern Europe.
i totally misspelled bismarck
McCain will probably be declared senile if and after he captures the presidency. The VP that the Repugs pick should be scrutinized carefully. That choice really defines their agenda regarding McCain and why he gets so much preferential treatment from the Media. If St. John loses, we’ll be stuck with an erratic, embarrassing old fart here in Arizona—a useful tool since we’re not finished “developing” this state yet. There are a lot of “deals” to made, and St. John will help.
Jason @ 2, you’re right. Given that Bohemia was one of the regional names when he was a child. Doi! I be snarky.
Sigh me at 9 not knowing how properly link emoticons…
Maybe next McCain will take an African continent trip to Rhodesia.
And then maybe a trip to that funny looking place in the mid-pacific on all the maps and globes, “Rand McNally”.
Czechoslovakia or Czech Republic, Sunni or Shiite al Qaeda… why quibble over details when clearly the MSM views his years as a POW as qualification as a foreign policy expert.
the single most important conclusion that can be drawn from all of this missteps is that McCain is a baaaaaaaaaaad candidate. He has been running for this office for 9 months and he still makes these blunders and he will keep making them up through November. While the MSM can ignore them and make them invisible for the public, that gets harder after the conventions and harder still in the last few weeks with the immediate media blitzes we will see.
I’ve explained this before, but apparently it needs to be explained again,
The MSN view of John McCain’s foreign policy expertise for beginners:
McCain = POW
POW = Foreign Policy Expert
Attacking McCain on foreign Policy = Attacking POWs
Therefore all statements McCain makes about foreign policy are true.
Expect CNN and Fox news to announce the opening of their new Czechoslovakia bureaus any day now.
How much attention do you suppose McCain’s Czechoslovakia mistake will get?
That all depends. Is Chandra Levy involved in it in any way?
“Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore.”
Ya see, that’s why we need a missle shield. If we had had one 15 years ago, Czechoslovakia might still exist.
Let’s see, is it Prague, Prawns or Pralines? They just need to keep him off the air! Soon I predict he’ll pull a Jesse Jackson; cold remarks over a hot microphone!
And yet he is tied with Obama!
Boggles my mind. I remember Obama couldn’t quite put Clinton away either.
There are neither brown people nor Muslims in the Czech Republic therefore it’s not on the list of Places to Be Blown Up. The actual name of any country is unimportant to McCain, the religion and skin color of the population are. Don’t tell him that there are white skinned Muslims in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as significant Muslim minorities in the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro. That kind of information makes him cranky and then he won’t settle down for his nap.
Lots of people still refer to it as such.
It’s not as though there was a national referendum and the Slovaks chose to break off.
Perhaps he meant to reduce energy exports to the region? I dunno, don’t care. Tho, he did use the right word in the second sentence.
And yet he is tied with Obama! Boggles my mind. I remember Obama couldn’t quite put Clinton away either.
I think there’s a parallel between the two races, in that the Obama campaign always seems focused on the component parts of the electorate and (wisely) dismisses the national polls that the media and many of us tend to use as a convenient shorthand.
In the primary race, the pundits were focused on how close Clinton and Obama were running in national polls, but that never mattered. They were focused on the delegate count and, in the end, that’s what mattered and got them the nomination.
The general election, of course, works the same way, with the national percentages being largely meaningless (to a point) and the real issue being the state-by-state totals. Sure, Obama only has a narrow lead in the national polls — 46-43 in Gallup — but if you look at the state-by-state breakdown, he’s doing much better. Electoral Vote (http://www.electoral-vote.com/) has Obama trouncing McCain 320-204, while 538 (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/) has it only slightly closer at 307-231.
So, yes, it’s close in the national polls, but that’s not what matters. The Obama campaign proved in the primaries that they have a gift for watching the local contests and tailoring their message accordingly, and it seems to be working just as well in the national election too.
Crissa said:
“Lots of people still refer to it as such.
It’s not as though there was a national referendum and the Slovaks chose to break off.”
Actually, they did have a national vote and the majority of Czechs and Slovaks decided to split. (I was there; I remember it and was sad how it turned out.)
And the fact that “lots of people” say it, doesn’t make it any less of an error. Lots of Americans suck at geography. Is that really our standard for our national leaders?
What’s particularly telling to me about the Czechoslovakia error is that McCain has been making this SAME mistake since 2000 — repeatedly in the past few months — and yet either none of his handlers have pointed out to him his error or he can’t remember the correction from one week to the next (see, Shiite, Sunni). It’s not like it’s that hard or he couldn’t make exactly the same point referring to a real country that actually exists.
Maybe he was thinking about the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog?
He coulda just been mixed up. The Czechoslovakian Wolfdog is kinda cool. Wouldn’t be the first time he lost his bearings.
To be fair, “The Czech Republic”, being three words, is even more awkward than “Czechoslovakia” (though slightly easier to spell). What the English language needs — but doesn’t have — is a shorter, everyday, term. In conversation, Danes and Swedes call it “Czekia”, Poles call it “Czechy”; “The Czech Republic” only gets dragged out in formal situations. It’s like “The German Democratic Republic”. Whoever called it that? Most people knew it as “East Germany”.
There are countries all over the world, but only free countries can make them live again. Keep up the fight, John.
When I am President, there will be a Czechoslovakia by 2013.
I’ve found McCain’s policy toward Czechoslovakia on his Web site. Here’s a pdf.
Rege good find.
Some internet (john mccain is aware of the internet but does not understand it) hucksters may be having fun at the expense of McCain.
Surely John McCain knows or has been briefed that Czechs and the Slovaks got an artificially created county in the aftermath of WWI. He must be wondering why they all just can’t get along now nad was not informed of the divorce. Or he forgot.
Fortunately McCain understands foreign policy unless he doesn’t or forgot he understood it or didn’t understand it but forgot.
On November 4, America will sit John McCain down and tell him to cut out the shit.
These bastards are going to try to start something with Russia so the war machinery can continue to suck us dry of resources. Gonna be a real revolution in this country soon, I betcha…
Wow…I haven’t heard a gaffe like that since William Jennings Brian called old Taft a lunger back in ot-nine!
Now, where did I put my mercury drops.
The fact that Czechoslovakia no longer exists is besides the point. The point is that America can’t afford NOT to spread freedom and democracy to a country, even if that country doesn’t actually exist.
Thank you,
Cyndy McCain
Stepford Incorporated
These bastards are going to try to start something with Russia […] — d. zent, @30
Russia? Nah. John Sidney may spout all he wants about booting them out of G8 but it ain’t gonna play (if only because Russia would have to vote for its own dismissal). And Bush/Cheney cabal are not interested in tangling with Russia; why should they be? Russia, at the moment, is much like US — a semi starved giant, exhausted from fighting gnats. Nah. The big grizzly is no more interested in fighting the big brown bear than the other way ’round (incidentally: the new Russian president’s name — Medvedev — translates to something like “Bearson”. *Very* nice)
Iran, now… Wouldn’t put is past the SOBs to “start something” *there*.
You’ve gotta give him credit for that, because he remembers the Defenestration of Prague like it was yesterday. It’s yesterday he has problems with.
Why is the media so forgiving with the old man ?
See there is only one way to handle this kind of crap. Someone has to get a hold of David Frum and ask him to explain the difference between the two remarks on say hardball, or Fox Noise, or Olberman. Right, fat chance…
I understand McCain is meeting with Tito next week to talk about potential problems in Yugoslavia…
You guys are so right. How can one consider McCain an expert in FA when he doesn’t know the proper name of the country/region to which he is referring. He probably thinks there are 57 states in the United Sates of America. Wait, that’s Obama. Never mind.
At least he didn’t call it Austria-Hungary.