John McCain mixes continents or disses Spain? You decide

John McCain's interview with a Miami-based radio reporter -- and his remarks on Spain -- is causing a stir on the blogosphere and in Spain.

According to the Washington Post version of events, "McCain suggested this week that he would continue President Bush's policy of having cool relations with the government of Spain, despite having made starkly contrasting statements to the Spanish press earlier this year saying he looked forward to normalized relations with the NATO ally.

"In comments that have caused a kerfuffle in Spain, McCain seemed to lump Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero in the same category as the anti-American leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba."

The BBC reports that McCain has "raised suspicions in Spain that he thinks the country's prime minister is Latin American." It notes that after he was asked whether he'd meet with Zapatero, "Mr. McCain spoke of his record with leaders in 'the hemisphere.' "

But according to the Post, "President Bush has never forgiven Zapatero for pulling troops out of Iraq shortly after his victory in 2004. Though the Spanish prime minister has tried repeatedly to rebuild relations and win an invitation to visit Washington, Bush has yet to hold a formal bilateral meeting with him."

You can hear the English language version of the interview here. McCain also talks about Bolivia -- "we should be paying a lot more attention to the region," he says. And he says Barack Obama "has never been south of our border in his entire life."

Of Cuba, he says Raul Castro has shown he "cares more about power than his people" by spurning U.S. offers of humanitarian assistance for hurricane victims.

The Post says the interview was done by "Radio Caracol WSUA 1260AM in Miami, part of the Spanish-language radio group Union Radio" and was conducted Tuesday when McCain was in town.

There's lots of speculation in the blogosphere over whether McCain knew he was talking about Zapatero, but the campaign insists he did.

From senior adviser Randy Scheunemann: "The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain's willingness to meet Zapatero, and ID'd him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred. Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview.

"In this week's interview, Senator McCain did not rule in or rule out a White House meeting with President Zapatero, a NATO ally. If elected, he will meet with a wide range of allies in a wide variety of venues but is not going to spell out scheduling and meeting location specifics in advance. He also is not going to make reckless promises to meet America's adversaries. It's called keeping your options open, unlike Senator Obama who has publically committed to meeting some of the world's worst dictators unconditionally in his first year in office. "