Lunch with Joe Biden October 20, 2008
Posted by dorigo in internet, news, politics.Tags: Biden, McCain, Obama, US election
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David Orban, my futurologist / singularitarian friend, is more and more involved in global matters, and this drives him to meet notable people high up in the establishment (I will paste here a link to a video clip of his question to Al Gore at a meeting a few months ago soon). During last weekend David had lunch with Sen. Joe Biden, when he could collect some of Biden’s comments for us. Here’s one about McCain’s campaign:
“The campaign is going to get uglier. McCain is spending $60MM on robocalls spreading scurrilous messages and misinformation.
John McCain hired the very people that orchestrated the attacks on him when he was running against Bush. Literally the same people. Charlie Black was the architect of the smear campaign against McCain, and now McCain has hired him.”
And a positive note:
“America’s image in the world will be restored within 15 minutes of Obama being elected.”
Please don’t miss the full report put together by David on fickr.
UPDATE: well, Steve Jurvetson rightly points out in the comments thread below that HE is the source of the piece you find at the link above. Apologies to Steve – David pasted it in his facebook account and I got it from there as an original source.
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A Quantum Diaries Survivor 
Last week, it was approved that USA would occupy Iraq until 2011. So, I don’t think their image will change that fast.
Biden is a hypocrite.
Quite possible Goffredo. Do you have anything to say about McCain’s choice of Charlie Black, to add spice to the discussion ?
T.
No
I think if I want to be competitive I should try to put myself in the shoes of my detractors. I feel it is more of an ethical problem for Black that has accepted to work for McCain than one of McCain for having hired Black. For this same reason I do not fault Obama for choosing Biden; I fault Biden for accepting to be Obama’s VP.
The phrase ‘ethical problem’ has very little to do with national politicians anywhere, perhaps things are better in the EU?, and nothing to do with Charlie Black.
> Last week, it was approved that USA would occupy Iraq until 2011.
Except no one cleared that with Sadr. Nothing that happens now matters , they are all kicking the ball down the field until after the election.
I must have watched about 50 Obama ads to 3 McCain ads over the weekend. I have to say that finding any truth in any of them was pretty impossible. This campaign has sort of made the Nixon – McGovern campaign look quaint and sweet, even after factoring in Watergate.
Maliki and the the Iraqi parliament have yet to officially approve this pact.
Colin Powell is a true American putting country before party.
Raising $150 million dollars can make quite a difference.
How strange…. the quotes are from me, and the URL link is to my photoblog post…. Did you mean David Orban or me for the subject of this post? =)
I also have a photo and quotes from Colin Powell linked to from there…
Hi Steve,
my apologies! I understand what happened. David must have liked your post so much that he put it on his own facebook log. I found it there, and believed it was his own production.
In any case, the material was worth the link… I am now updating the post above.
Cheers,
T.
Hi Steve! 🙂
I posted your photo and the quote to Facebook, and explicitly referred to the fact that it was from you, and not mine. 🙂
Tommaso in good faith thought it was mine.
He is right: I liked the quote, and on top of posting it to Facebook, which I seldom do, and in this case was a shortcut close to an other one, I also posted it to FriendFeed, to which I can link:
http://bit.ly/2bCRcP
It is practically the same thing I did with Facebook. Since on FriendFeed there is no doubt about the fact that it is a link to somebody else’s content, I think we can safely blame Facebook for the confusing display of the quote on my profile page. 🙂
David
“America’s image in the world will be restored within 15 minutes of Obama being elected”
I think it certainly will improve, but I don’t think it will be restored that easily.
“America’s image in the world will be restored within 15 minutes of Obama being elected”
And this is relevant to us how?
“America’s image in the world will be restored within 15 minutes of Obama being elected.”
You underestimate the ingenuity of Europeans. They will just find another excuse to hate Americans. And as for the Arabs etc: well, they don’t even need to find a new excuse.
You are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t.
Changcho, ok, not 15′. But indeed, I believe the message of an afro-american being elected as president of the united states is very powerful.
Josh, it is relevant to americans in several ways. One of them is the foreign politics of the US, which will be sided by other countries much more effectively, creating possibilities for an economic development that has not been seen so far (say, in Iraq -where investments are still impossible given the situation of conflict Bush has created there).
Dylan, europeans do not hate americans. You sound as if you have been indoctrinated.
Jeff, damned if we do what ? Missed your subject.
Cheers,
T.
Tommaso
For some people the U.S.A. will always be at fault, what ever they do/don’t do, hence I used the popular expression “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
Ok, gotcha. In any case, every country has its faults. I do not see why the US should have the primacy in this too… Italians will always be mafiosi, regardless of whether their premier has clear ties with mafia or not 😉
With respect to Joe Biden’s saying “America’s image in the world will be restored within 15 minutes of Obama being elected.”,
what is the view from Italy of Biden’s remarks on Sunday 19 October 2008):
“Mark my words … It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. …
Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.
And he’s going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially; it’s not going to be apparent that we’re right.”
when considered together with a 21 October 2008 DEBKAfile article:
“… the assertion by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”
…[was]… prompted …[by]… the information …[that]… US intelligence’s amended estimate …[is]… that Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in …”.
What role (as staging area etc) would Italy play in a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities?
Would Berlusconi automatically go along with a decision by a newly elected USA President to make such a strike?
Tony Smith
PS – The Biden quote is from a 21 October 2008 New York Post article by Carl Campanile and Geoff Earle.
Hello Tommaso,
I am very interested in your opinion about singularitarian/posthumanist movements… can you tell us something?
someone think that they are like a sort of “newage-tech-religion”; do you think the same thing or not?
thank you
A
Hi,
I do not think these are a religion. These people are incredibly smart. I think they are a bit overoptimistic, but optimism is a good thing in this case.
I do think thought can exist outside of the human mind. I think the culprit is learning. Once we get that hardwired, we will see an explosion. It is a huge responsibility for mankind to make this transition in the most foulproof way, respecting moral and ethical standards.
Cheers,
T.