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.

Every time I hear Trump talk, I wonder if we have heard the last of his over-the-top and vulgar pronouncements.

Then, he tops himself.

He did so earlier this week when he uttered a vulgar phrase that should never come off a president’s lips.

“Why do we want all these people from these shithole countries here?,” Trump was reported to have said. By these “shithole” countries, Trump was referring to El Salvador, Haiti and Africa.

A faithful reporter like me would go on to say that Trump added this phrase to what he said, “We should have people from places like Norway.” Well, that is my ancestry, so, yes, let’s have more Norwegians.

But the point of this blog is to say that Trump is the worst of presidents. His language is incendiary. In this case, it risked compromising talks under way between Congress and the Trump Administration to find middle ground on immigration issues.

Tough to find middle ground with a president who doesn’t see any. Or, least compromises any attempt to find such ground.

CNN editor Chris Cillizza put it this way: “Make no mistake: This is the lowest ebb of a presidency defined by a series of low ebbs and defining of the presidency downward. Yes, lower than Trump’s comments about Mexico sending us “rapists” and “criminals.”

“Lower than questioning Sen. John McCain’s military service. Lower than his impugning of a judge because of his Mexican heritage. Lower than his questioning the motives of a Gold Star family. Lower than the 2,000 mis-truths and outright falsehoods he has said since becoming President. Lower than his racially-tinged attacks on the anthem protests by NFL players. Lower even than his “both sides” argument in the wake of white supremacist violence against peaceful protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“This is not only a President of the United States voicing racist sentiment in front of a group of people. It is also doubling down on those sentiments — proudly! — because it might advance his political power among his base.

“This is — much like Charlottesville — an abdication of the moral authority of the presidency, but it’s more than that: It’s saying, quite simply, that saying racist stuff is a-OK as long as it works politically.

There are things that are — or should be — beyond politics. The most important of those things is the belief that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Racism from Trump? Yes. There is no other way to read his latest statement. I

Is it as low as he can go? Probably not.