It is interesting how people, events and places—and snafus—can have a confluence under the strangest and most ironic circumstances.
Take the ongoing conflict in Egypt and the fears by some that serious violence could effectively close the Suez Canal.
Add to this the recent claim by Chris Matthews that Egypt “of course has the Panama Canal.”
Then we have the never-ending claims by the “birthers” that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. To counter that, some have revived the 2008 presidential campaign claim that since McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, he is not a “natural-born citizen” and, thus, could not have held the nation’s highest office.
Talking about snafus, during the 2008 presidential campaign none other than Pravda jumped into the fray by publishing an article under the title, “The McCain Incident–An Egyptian May Be the President of the U.S.”
The article was translated from Russian into English by Watching America and published there in March 2008 under the title, “Can Egyptian Born McCain Be President?”
Pravda told us:
A new issue has arisen. The issue is that John McCain was born in Egypt. To run for the presidency of the US, one must be born in the United States, but both the father and mother of the senator were citizens of the United States. Therefore it is unlikely that the circumstances mentioned above will hinder McCain in any way.
“Egyptian Born McCain”? How can that be?
Oh wait, Panama Canal Zone, Canal Zone, Suez Canal Zone—quite easy, if one doesn’t know his (or her) geography and is in a hurry or under pressure.
To make a long story short, it seems that Pravda switched Canals, just like Matthews did.
No harm done: Obama became President and McCain could have become President, had he chosen a better running mate—but now we are getting into politics.
Now, if we just could get the birthers to be resigned and Mubarak to resign. Sadly, the former may be more difficult than the latter. But that’s life—and politics.
Image: Courtesy mrdowling.com
