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.

Remember, this is one of two departments I direct – and I have absolute freedom to include what I want to include and to ignore what I want to ignore.

How’s that for sounding Trumpian?

Now, on to the quotes.

From Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street Journal: “When candidate Trump first referred to ‘the swamp,’ he was talking about the bog of Beltway lobbyists and ‘establishment’ politicians. But President Trump’s first year in office has revealed that the real swamp is the unchecked power of those who actually run Washington: The two million members of the federal bureaucracy. That civil-servant corps was turbocharged by the Obama administration’s rule-making binge, and it now has more power—and more media enablers—than ever. We live in an administrative state, run by a left-leaning, self-interested governing class that is actively hostile to any president with a deregulatory or reform agenda.

Comment: So, yes, give the Trump Administration its due here. It has moved to undo the regulatory overreach of the Obama Administration. One hopes that the goal is not just to undo regulations, but to undo ones that don’t work or that go beyond an appropriate government role. That is a key distinction, one I hope the Trump Administration remembers.

From James Hohmann in the Washington Post: “THE BIG IDEA:  Following President Trump’s tweets can feel like watching a short man drive a Hummer. His fragile ego is always looking to overcompensate. The latest manifestation of that is downright Napoleonic.

“North Korean leader Kim John un said Monday that the United States is ‘within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office.’

“Twelve minutes after Fox News highlighted that quote last night, Trump tweeted, ‘Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works!’”

Comment: So, the motive from Trump continues to be the “mine is bigger than yours” claim. Who cares? The nuclear buttons are a source of real concern, worth more than absurd quotes and tweets.

From the Wall Street Journal editorial page: “Trump has genuine accomplishments about which it is appropriate to boast — including tax reform, judicial nominees who are reshaping the federal courts, and a stop to new regulation. Yet even with the economy growing faster, and a tight labor market beginning to bid up wages, Mr. Trump’s job approval remains below 40 per cent in the Real Clear Politics average.

“The paradox results from Mr. Trump’s governing behavior. His attacks on all and sundry have polarized the electorate even more than it was on Election Day in 2016. He retains the support of his most fervent base but he has lost support among many who voted against Hillary Clinton more than they did for him. Those Americans tend to think that a nuclear missile exchange isn’t a laughing matter.”

Comment: Well said. Trump can’t stop talking or tweeting and both compromise consideration of the Administration’s first-year accomplishments.

From Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal:  “My antipathies nicely divided, I didn’t vote for a presidential candidate in the last election. When it was over, I was pleased that Hillary Clinton had lost and depressed that Donald Trump had won—and if that ain’t being riven I don’t know what is. But once Mr. Trump was elected I wished him well. Not that he made it easy to do so. His style was, to put it gently, alien to my notion of a serious leader. Modesty, civility, a sense of measure, regard for the gravity of his office—none of these arrows were in his quiver.

“Very well, I thought, my job, as someone hoping for his country’s success, was to separate Mr. Trump’s personality from his policies. I am, after all, in favor of some of his ideas: holding the other nations in NATO responsible for paying their share of its cost, moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, reducing our contribution to the essentially anti-American United Nations, working to clarify the muddle of ObamaCare, reforming the tax system. Separate the personality from the policies: One would think that easy enough to do. Mr. Trump has, by the nature of his rebarbative personality, made that a difficult, if not impossible, task.”

Comment: A solid goal to separate personality from politics? Yes. But perhaps impossible – and Trump makes it so.

From Ordie Kittrie, a law professor at Arizona State University in a piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal:  “Though there are surely wonderful Norwegians, the government in Oslo calls to mind the Barry Switzer line: “Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”

Comment: As a person of Norwegian heritage, I noted that in his Oval Office distribute, Trump said he would welcome more Norwegians to immigrate. Yet, the quote from the Wall Street Journal indicates a truth: Norwegians have benefitted from their geographic position – and surely, as they used to say on the Seinfeld TV show, “there’s nothing wrong with that.”