A final update of the evening on McCain’s uber-gaffe.
There’s some unclarity whether the interviewer was done by a Spanish reporter or a Spanish language reporter Caracol from 1260 in Miami. I suspect they may have had some joint arrangement since they both appear to claim it as their own exclusive. Or perhaps the local station in Miami is working as the affiliate of the Spanish radio network.
That doesn’t change the underlying story. But TPM Reader RC points out that if you go to the Caracol1260 website and scroll down below the fold to the section of audio links on the left under the headline “Hoy por Hoy”, these folks have their own version of the recording. They spliced the Spanish translations in differently. And in the way they did it, you can hear much more of McCain’s actual English. It’s still a bit difficult to hear McCain since the translator is speaking simultaneously. But you can hear most of what he says. It’s pretty clear that McCain doesn’t remember who Zapatero is. And he keeps referring to his approach to Latin America even after the interview keeps pointing that she’s asking him a question a Spain, which is actually in Europe.
(ed.note: Another point about this version of the interview audio, Caracol seems to have completely dubbed out the interviewers voice in exchange for a translator speaking in Spanish. If you listen to the other version from the Spanish radio channel, it’s clear that the original interview was entirely in English. The Caracol version also appears to cut portions of the the exchange. So we still need to hear the unaltered recording of the exchange.)
