Richard WarnickGeography Matters - Unless You’re John McCain
Geographers like me are used to our fellow Americans’ inexhaustible reservoir of ignorance about the world. After all, it’s a big planet that offers a vast array of little-known information.
Yet, surely we could be expected to know something. How hard can it be?
- Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map.
- 20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia.
- 48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim.
- Half of young Americans can’t find New York on a map.
OK, what about older Americans? Specifically, older Americans who want to be elected President and claim to know all about foreign policy?
Today on “Good Morning America,” Senator John McCain warned of a “very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.”
Watch it here:
Iraq and Pakistan are 1,500 miles apart. Imagine if Barack Obama said that they shared a common border– the news media would hammer away at it for weeks.
Co-anchor Diane Sawyer failed to challenge Senator McCain’s apparent confusion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
