romney's foreign policy advisors, on a conference call with reporters, criticized the obama administration for "abandon[ing] its missile sites in Poland and Czechoslovakia". czechoslovakia is a country that ceased to exist twenty years ago. this particular mistake pops up every once in a while. a few random examples i managed to google up in the last 2 minutes: john mccain referred to the czech republic as czechoslovakia multiple times during the 2008 campaign. rick santorum promised to "Establish a 'comprehensive missile defense system' and fulfill missile defense obligations to Poland and Czechoslovakia..." political bloggers sometimes do it too.
why does this keep happening with czechoslovakia? it does seem to happen to conservatives more than liberals. is it because they are stuck in a cold war mentality? but other countries have ceased to exist since the cold war ended (e.g. east germany, yugoslavia, the soviet union), while the romney advisors on the conference call did refer to the soviet union as it if still exists, the czechoslovakia slip-up seems to happen a lot more often than any other. why is it so hard for people to remember the czech-slovak breakup, as opposed to all those other breakups?
why does this keep happening with czechoslovakia? it does seem to happen to conservatives more than liberals. is it because they are stuck in a cold war mentality? but other countries have ceased to exist since the cold war ended (e.g. east germany, yugoslavia, the soviet union), while the romney advisors on the conference call did refer to the soviet union as it if still exists, the czechoslovakia slip-up seems to happen a lot more often than any other. why is it so hard for people to remember the czech-slovak breakup, as opposed to all those other breakups?
