Gov. Rick Scott’s office can dismiss the governor’s mortifying meeting with Spain’s King Juan Carlos as just one of those awkward misunderstandings the liberal media love to revel in. But what they can’t dismiss is this: What Scott did was not your basic gaffe, snafu or protocol faux pas. No, humorously bringing up–and then cluelessly expanding on–the monarch’s highly publicized, highly criticized elephant-hunting trip to Botswana indicates a serious flaw in his modus operandi.
You don’t lead a trade delegation without being briefed on relevant particulars. That includes political hot buttons in the host country. Especially if your leader is socially inept, small-talk challenged and in over his head on a world stage. You script him, especially when he’s greeted by a king. Only an amateurish, incompetent staff would not properly prepare for a royal audience. That’s not shocking, merely embarrassing for the state and further infuriating for all those who didn’t join the Tea Party lemmings in electing this miscast misfit.
But it could have been worse. Gov. Gaffe could have inquired about Cuban cigars.