PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

If you had a chance to sit back and write down your thoughts about what we, the candidates and the voters, should be talking about in this election cycle, what would be on the list?

Well, Thomas Friedman, in a piece for the New York Times on February 17, put it this way:

“I find this election bizarre for many reasons but none more than this: If I were given a blank sheet of paper and told to write down America’s three greatest sources of strength, they would be ‘a culture of entrepreneurship,’ ‘an ethic of pluralism’ and the ‘quality of our governing institutions.’ And yet I look at the campaign so far and I hear leading candidates trashing all of them.”

Good points, all.

The qualities Friedman lists are ones that set America apart from many other countries in the world. Yet, they are seldom even discussed by the candidates running for president or, as Friedman points out, are trashed by the leading ones.

Instead, some of the candidates talk about building walls around America to keep all immigrants out. Others talk about how to strain the budget by creating new government mandates. And  still others talk about what they will do either to trash the Obama Administration or George Bush Administration priorities rather than set out a new, positive agenda for America.

I, for one, wish for a more constructive, middle-of-the-road dialogue that would point out the virtues of the leading candidates for the nation’s highest political office.  Then, we, as Americans, could vote our conscience, not just respond to the latest criticism or insult.

Let’s get back, as Friedman advocates, to a discussion of what sets America apart – a culture of entrepreneurship, an ethic of pluralism and the quality of governing institutions.