Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Doom for Democrats

Is it really possible? Could the man I describe as "Spengler, the Phlegmatic End Timer" in my blog roll, be a Democrat? And is he pronouncing the DOOM of the Democratic party?
DENVER - Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech last week seemed vastly different from the stands of this city's Invesco Stadium than it did to the 40 million who saw it on television. Melancholy hung like think smog over the reserved seats where I sat with Democratic Party staffers. The crowd, of course, cheered mechanically at the tag lines, flourished placards, and even rose for the obligatory wave around the stadium. But its mood was sour. The air carried the acrid smell of defeat, and the crowd took shallow breaths. Even the appearance of R&B great Stevie Wonder failed to get the blood pumping.

Hmm. Who is this guy? A spy? Is he even a guy? And what if his name really is Spengler? That would fool everyone. He goes on:
On television, Obama's spectacle might have looked like The Ten Commandments, but inside the stadium it felt like Night of the Living Dead. The longer the candidate spoke, and the more money he promised to spend on alternative energy, preschool education, universal health care, and other components of the Democratic pinata, the lower the party professionals slouched into their seats.


Well, now. Deep, deep, well now. Maybe Spengler is Warren Christopher. Just a guess.

It is a worthy read.

UPDATE: Crush Earth Right Now

19 comments:

kurt9 said...

Steve Sailor believes "Spengler" to be a former associate of lyndon LaRouch.

hdgreene said...

Well, if he was a former associate of LaRouch, I hope it was a mistake of his youth.

Anonymous said...

Spengler is really a bishop in Germany who used to moonlight for the CIA.

Anonymous said...

My favorite comment on Obama's speech
is from the (left leaning) Slate Gabefest.

David Plotz stated that while four adults
began watching the speech on TV at his home, two fell asleep before the end,
one drifted away leaving only David to hear
it all.

Classic.

Anonymous said...

I live in Denver and have heard similar comments from those who went. From the line to get in to the expensive food once inside ($8 for nachos) to the long, boring speech and late, late night, it didn't go over all that well.

Not all that sure that the Democrats didn't lose Colorado by holding the convention here.....

Anonymous said...

Spengler, presumably named after Oswald Spengler of the decline of the west tome, writes for Asia Times Online and is a quite profound cynical / realist analyst. For the sake of this comment "Spengler" is a "he".

Little is known about him other than his pen name. There is speculation (if you look back on his comment thread at Asia Times) that he is an academic at the University of Chicago.

If you read his article archive you will find that his philosophy does not lend itself to the self flagellating left -- particularly wrt foreign policy. Indeed, he seems to be nearly the only defender of the U.S. in a fairly anti American web publication.

This is a very well educated person with a well integrated personal philosophy and he is VERY tough to debate with.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this Spengler simply the alter ego of Asia Times columnist Henry C. K. Liu?

Regarding "Spengler's" political views, you'll notice that he praises the current Chinese government as well as Mao Tse Tung from time to time.

Anonymous said...

By the way, "Spengler's" real name is Uwe Parpart. He's a smart guy, but always acted like a dick when we worked together at Asia Times. I think this "Spengler" secret identity is bizarre and pointless, so I enjoy "outing" him whenever I get the chance.

Anonymous said...

Possibly. However, Liu never impressed me as having a profound understanding of renaissance and enlightenment history. Further, Spengler's Latin translations(rare but there) are not the vanilla quotes -- they appear to be de novo as they are a bit quirky.

This from an unusual knowledge of, frankly, obscure and largely untranslated (or poorly translated) church history.

So, he has Latin (unusual for a non clerical Asian) but he has no Greek (again from his quotes -- all mundane and from second sources) so that points to a secular scholar of Western European history of about 1400 to about 1750.

That does not fit for Liu as far as I can see.

Anonymous said...

A German? Makes sense when you consider that most of his clerical quotes (the more obscure the better it seems) are from the Germanic church.


Still and all, while he may be a "dick" I'll lay odds you never won a debate with him!

And, I still admire his logically consistent philosophy. It's rare that you see any newsie with that level of integration. Most are stone ignorant.

Anonymous said...

It's LaRouche. Get it right or nutjobs will stare at you in a very weird way.

If you don't like Obama or McCain, thank God we don't get people like LaRouche as candidates. And don't say McCain or Obama is an nutjob like LL, because you know it is not so.

Anonymous said...

Debates? Actually he never had any interest in discussing issues with me. Uwe Parpart/Spengler is the very definition of a "curmudgeon", but intelligent and knowledgeable - I'll definitely give him that!

hdgreene said...

All I can say is, Kurt misspelled it first.

Anonymous said...

Lakenvelder,

The concept of a pen name is not really that bizarre.

vanderleun said...

Has anyone ever seen Spengler and Warren Christopher together in the same room at the same time and occupying different bodies?

I thought not.

Anonymous said...

c'mon Gerald,
you can't use that logic
I haven't seen you and Putin in the same room
Does that make you sec state Christopher?

Anonymous said...

by the way,
the dirty harry movie on amc rules!

hey, larouchite make my f'in day

Jay Currie said...

bio

Interesting if true.

Anonymous said...

@lakenvelder2:


Uwe Parpat? A German? So does he fake the non-optimal ;-) German in some of his comments or are you just posturing? Given the bio in the previous comment it is well possible that Parpat might be Spengler; but then, I repeat that, he has to actively fake bad German sometimes...