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 use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as 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.

I am the director of the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, just as I also direct the Department of Pet Peeves. I carry out both directorships based only on my whim and caprice, without paying attention to anyone else.

Call me a dictator if you want, but that’s the way it is.

So, here are more good quotes, with which I don’t necessarily agree or disagree, but which I found thought-provoking.

Wall Street Journal editorial writers on presidential address to Congress: “As usual for new Presidents, Mr. Trump’s main focus was domestic reform, and the foreign-policy sections offered no notable details. He was reassuring in calling for ‘a direct, robust and meaningful engagement with the world’ and he also invoked ‘American leadership.’ How that will manifest itself beyond destroying Islamic State, he did not say.

“Our guess is the speech won’t do much to move Democrats in a polarized Washington. But perhaps it will reassure nervous Republicans who have wondered when he would focus on the hard task of governing. The speech puts him on firmer ground for that challenge.

Wall Street Journal columnist on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: “Certainly the teachers’ unions and the Democrats they hold in their pockets account for the core of the opposition to the choice and accountability. But the GOP has made its own grim contributions to our two-tiered public-school system. This includes in Illinois in 2010, when nearly half the Republicans in the state House provided the margin needed to kill a Chicago voucher program.”

From Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal: “The Spanish viceroys who governed the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries had a saying when it came to the edicts—usually ill-judged and invariably late—from their sovereign across the sea: Obedezco pero no cumplo. I obey but I do not comply.

“It could be the motto of Donald Trump’s cabinet, at least on the foreign-policy side.

“Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said during a visit to Mexico that there would be ‘no, repeat, no, use of military force in immigration operations. None.’ This was a few hours after Mr. Trump had described his deportation policy as ‘a military operation.’

“A few days earlier, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley insisted ‘we absolutely support a two-state solution’ for Israelis and Palestinians, just a day after the president said he was agnostic on the subject.

“Before that, it was Mike Pence affirming the centrality of NATO, after his boss had called it obsolete. And Jim Mattis, promising Iraqis that the administration does not intend to take their oil, despite the countless times Mr. Trump has lamented our failure to do so. And Mike Pompeo reiterating that, yes, it was Russia that was behind the DNC leaks, and not, as Mr. Trump speculated last year, a 400-pound man in New Jersey.”

Kathleen Parker on George Bush (43): “Bush’s brilliance shone, however, when he sided with the Fourth Estate over the current chief executive. A free press, he said, is ‘indispensable to democracy.’

“’We need an independent media to hold people like me to account,’ he said, adding: ‘Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.’

“Truer or timelier words are rare.

“Despite his flaws and misjudgments, Bush nevertheless was well-liked by many journalists for the very reason Trump isn’t. Bush had a heart. Self-deprecation came easily to him. He wore himself lightly.”

Strassel on George W. Bush: “Mr. Bush is a straight-up guy. While president, he treated the press and his political opponents with general courtesy—attending their events, living with their bias. He ran as a uniter and was far more genuine in his outreach than his grandiose successor (Barack Obama). He didn’t lie, or bully, or sic his IRS on his opponents, or spy on reporters. He took responsibility for his actions, notably big decisions like going to war.

“Not one bit of that earned him any credit. Go back and read the headlines from the Bush administration. They vary in substance from today’s coverage, but not the least in tone. Bush Derangement Syndrome entailed a vicious, daily assault by a media contemptuous of Mr. Bush’s intelligence, intentions and integrity. He was compared to Hitler and terrorists, accused of racism, homophobia and sexism. He was a plutocrat, out to rip off the nation’s old and poor. He orchestrated conspiracies ranging from 9/11 to the spread of avian flu. He lied, people died.

“None of this was true, but the goal of the media and the left from the start of the Bush presidency was to demonize and delegitimize the man and his agenda. It worked to a degree, in that it helped put the White House into the hands of Barack Obama—who, in contrast to Mr. Bush, used the power of his office to continue vilifying his opponents. Mr. Trump’s smash-mouth politics are simply a continuation of this trend.

“Which brings us to the president’s Tuesday address to Congress, and the shocked faces of all those women in white. Democrats were counting on Mr. Trump to unleash another gloomy tirade, the easier to continue demonizing him. Instead a gracious Mr. Trump called for unity, offered to work with the other side, and dangled some liberal priorities in front of Democratic noses—infrastructure spending, immigration reform. Nancy Pelosi looked verklempt.

“Democrats have been so eager to paint Mr. Trump as a right-wing lunatic that they’ve actually started to believe it—at their peril. The reality is that Mr. Trump is one of the least ideological Republican leaders in modern history. He wasn’t even a member of the GOP until recently. And while he clearly intends to uphold his campaign promises, he’s a negotiator who is always up for a deal. This is a man the Democratic Party can work with, if it chooses.”

And Strassel on Democrat opposition to all things Trump: “Then again, the Trump phenomenon is rooted in voters’ growing disgust with politics as usual. Although Mr. Trump’s personal approval ratings are far from stellar, the latest poll from this newspaper and NBC shows that voters appreciate the president’s directness, his decisiveness, and his intention to get things done. The poll also shows a growing sense of optimism and a sharp turn against the Democrats. Obstruction would be taking a big chance in these times.”

Permit this director to add a footnote on former President George W. Bush. I thought he conducted the Office of the President with the same skills a CEO would use – involvement, but not over-the-top micro-management. As stated above, he also had the trait of self-deprecation, which made him all the more likeable.

My sense is that history will treat him better than he was treated while in office.