US-centric -- not everybody cares about our menagerie of weirdos
I'm not sure about that. Most of the world is quite interested in "international news", and the US election is one of the more important international news stories of this year. When I was in Oxford in 2004, half of the college was awake until the final results came in around 7AM.
Well, I guess it would be interesting to some places, e.g. people in those countries would want to know if the US military will be in Iraq as McCain suggests, or if we'll invade Pakistan per Obama's promises (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08...).
But how are changes in US domestic policy going to affect startups in Amsterdam or Dublin?
There's a difference between invading a country and using surgical strikes to decapitate the senior leadership of a terrorist group that has bombed places from Istanbul to London to Jakarta.
I don't think most of Europe would be against a limited attack like Obama has hypothesized, nor would most of the rest of the world. The main difference is that Obama would represent a shift to a more inclusive foreign policy, and 'coalitions' put together under his Administration might actually be meaningful. Despite all the cries to the contrary for the sake of the news cycle, the rest of the presidential candidates, past and present (Clinton, McCain, Edwards, Romney) have all stated at various times that they would do the same.
As an aside, the US is already attacking Pakistani territory with Predator drones, it's just that it's with tacit permission from the Pakistani government. I read one report that alikened it to how the Vietnam War spread to Cambodia and Laos secretly.
Even when used as a flippant example to provide a counter-point to McCain's hawkishness, the Pakistani flareup only servers to further dilute the real issues and contrasts at play in this campaign.
If it becomes harder to innovate here in the US because of tax law, labor law, immigration law, or whatever other laws, startups in other countries better be paying attention -- it means more opportunity.
I'm not sure about that. Most of the world is quite interested in "international news", and the US election is one of the more important international news stories of this year. When I was in Oxford in 2004, half of the college was awake until the final results came in around 7AM.
probably not Hacker News
I absolutely agree here.