Oren M. Spiegler – 3/8/16

This page was last updated on April 6, 2016.

Former presidential candidates step up; Oren M. Spiegler; Beaver County Times; March 8, 2016.

Mr. Spiegler is such a prolific letter writer the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gave him a little tribute back in 2003. Google “Oren M. Spiegler” and you’ll get more hits than you know what to do with. Unfortunately, prolific is not a synonym for competent. Mr. Spiegler claims to be a Republican. In my critique of “Breathing more freely,” I cited reasons why I was “beginning to believe Mr. Spiegler is simply another Republican impersonator,” but he sealed the deal with “Greatest foreign policy debacle.” Subsequent letters provided more confirmation. The group of local Republican impersonators also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, Edward J. Hum, Bill Ralston, and George Reese, all claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. While he has previously claimed to be a Republican, this appears to be the first time Mr. Spiegler claimed to be a registered Republican in a BCT letter. If true, Mr. Spiegler joins Mr. Hum in going the extra mile to further his impersonation of a Republican.

ALERT! Though I missed it by several months, Mr. Spiegler finally did the honorable thing and ended his charade and deregistered as a Republican.

You can find links to previous critiques of Spiegler letters I critiqued here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The BCT has or had a limit of 12 letters per writer per year. In 2014, the BCT either ditched that limit or made a huge exception for Mr. Spiegler. By my count, the BCT published at least 25 Spiegler letters in 2014. Mr. Spiegler and/or the BCT dialed things back a bit in 2015; the BCT published only 15 Spiegler letters.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Two former Republican presidential candidates have done something unprecedented and in so doing, have acted as patriots and statesmen.”

[RWC] As a reminder, last year Mr. Spiegler came clean that he was not a Republican though he posed as one for years.

“Mitt Romney has come back into the public sphere and with the backing of Arizona U.S. Sen. and war hero John McCain, has exposed Donald Trump as the fraud and con-man that he is, the individual who is absolutely unqualified to occupy any elective office in which knowledge and temperament are required.”

[RWC] Mr. Spiegler’s admiration of Mr. Romney appears to be a new development. During the 2012 election, my records indicate only two Spiegler BCT letters mentioned Mr. Romney and those were in January and February. At that time, Mr. Spiegler referred to Mr. Romney as “likeable, genial,” a far cry from today’s patriot, statesman, wise, and “eloquent and passionate.”

“War hero John McCain?” As far as I can see, only one of Mr. Spiegler’s BCT letters during the 2008 mentioned Mr. McCain, and that letter was not positive for Mr. McCain. When lefties made fun of the way Mr. McCain holds his arms and that he didn’t use computers very much, where was Mr. Spiegler? Both of these problems are the result of injuries Mr. McCain acquired after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.

“As Mr. Romney wisely advised, it was instructive to consider Trump’s response to his speech. As could be expected, the response contained no substance, Trump instead choosing to insult Romney as a failed nominee who ran a poor campaign.

“I am not sure how much heft the eloquent and passionate Romney statement will carry with Republican voters who are not concerned about policy matters or the future of our nation this year, instead choosing to cast a protest vote for someone who would blow up the country and the world, perhaps literally.”

[RWC] What a load of BS! Mr. Spiegler knows what made Mr. Trump possible was Republican leaders ignoring the party’s base. Democrats helped by ramming Obamacare down our throats without a single As I wrote in my paper “Donald Trump,” despite the base delivering huge mid-term victories that gave the GOP the majority in both the House and Senate, nothing changed.

“Thank you, Mitt Romney and John McCain. You tried to save our country. You will always have my respect and you can hold your heads high.”

[RWC] Sure. Who would ever want Mr. Spiegler’s “respect?”