"I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," said McCain, R-Ariz., said on "Good Morning America."
Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.
You can view McCain's expertise on geography here on YouTube:
Now I can understand a candidate making a flub now and then, especially a long, strenuous campaign schedule. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama talked about traveling through 57 states. So a flub now and then is perfectly understandable. The problem I have with McCain is that he has been consistently flubbing, consistently making misstatements, and consistently being confused on basic facts. The Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen provided a long list showing McCain's confusion:
* McCain continues to believe Czechoslovakia is still a country.
* McCain has been confused about the difference between Sudan and Somalia.
* McCain has been confused about whether he wants more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, more NATO troops in Afghanistan, or both.
* McCain has been confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq.
* McCain has been confused about whether the U.S. can maintain a long-term presence in Iraq.
* McCain has been confused about the source of violence in Iraq.
* McCain has been confused about Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda.
* McCain has been confused about the difference between Sunni and Shi’ia.
* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ responsibilities in Iraq.
* McCain has been confused about what transpired during the Maliki government’s recent offensive in Basra.
* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ ability to travel around Baghdad “in a non-armed Humvee.”
* McCain has been so confused about Iraq, in November 2006, he couldn’t even do a live interview about the war without reading prepared notes on national television.
* McCain has been confused about his vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
And this only covers McCain’s obvious incoherence on his signature issue.
Had Obama even gave one of these McCain flubs during this campaign, he would have been drummed out of the campaign from a combined attack by GOP partisans and the corporate media. Instead it is McCain that is expressing such confusion over the facts, even as McCain claims that he is supposed to be the expert on foreign affairs. And yet this supposed expert of foreign affairs can't even correctly read a map of the Middle East to realize that Iraq does not border Pakistan, or even to understand that Czechoslovakia no longer exists. These are simple geography questions--we haven't even gotten into the more complex political and military questions regarding Iraq that are confusing McCain.
I really didn't want to get into this issue until now, but I do believe that McCain's age is becoming a serious campaign issue. I can understand that the Iraq-Pakistan border is a complete gaffe, and I'm willing to accept a gaffe now and then. But McCain has presented a consistent pattern of gaffes and confused misstatements on foreign policy and Iraq. Is it because McCain cannot mentally and physically keep up with the strenuous campaigning due to his age? If the campaign schedule is making a 71-year-old John McCain a little confused, then perhaps he should not be elected president. I am not saying that a 71-year-old should not be elected president due to his age. What I am saying is that if John McCain does not have the mental capacity to understand the complex problems that a president must grasp in this world, and make the hard decisions based on these complex problems, then John McCain is not qualified to sit in the Oval Office. Because right now, John McCain is showing that consistent pattern of mental confusion regarding the issues of foreign policy and Iraq.
McCain is not mentally qualified to be elected into the White House.
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