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.

This is the way Washington Post columnist James Hohmann put it in his Daily 202 column as he wrote about U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, the Democrat from Colorado:

“He slammed his head on the table four times when I asked what he thought about other Democrat presidential contenders embracing the idea of expanding the Supreme Court.

“Having seen up close just how cynical and how vicious the tea party guys and the Freedom Caucus guys and Mitch McConnell have been, the last thing I want to do is be those guys. What I want to do is beat these guys so that we can begin to govern again.”

Sounds like a 2020 candidate worth considering, though it is important to cite one fact – Bennet has not declared yet that he is running, though his candidacy seems to be all but a foregone conclusion.

Here are some other notable excerpts from the Hohmann column, with my comments:

• “Court packing, like reparations, has emerged as a bright new dividing line to separate the pragmatists from the ideologues in the Democrat contest. The issue is quickly become a proxy for the larger choice Democrats must confront as they pick a standard bearer for 2020: Will they go with their heads or their hearts?”

Comment: It is very likely that left-wing Democrats – that’s redundant, isn’t it? – will go with their hearts because, based on their various wacko policy notions, they don’t have much head left.

• “Bennet, who says he’s inclined to run for president and will decide in a matter of ‘weeks,’ represents an antidote to the Democrat Party’s leftward lurch. I guess I’m starting to think strongly that we need a voice in this primary that’s willing to make the kind of case that I think that I would make.”

Comment: An antidote to the leftward lurch of many Democrats? Ye

• “Speaking at a house party up the hill from the State House, Bennet made an impassioned plea to 50 Democrats that the party must be more careful to avoid the ‘traps being laid by President Donald Trump. Look, we’ve got to nominate somebody who can beat Donald Trump. That means we have a responsibility not to do ourselves in. I went around in 2016 saying Trump couldn’t win. I was totally wrong.

Comment: Bennet is right again. Given how bad Trump is, the Ds should band together behind someone who can win, not someone who caters to the far left bloc. The risk is that the Ds, by who they nominate (Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Warren ???) will put Trump in the White House again.

• “Bennet said Trump’s not an idiot. Whatever you think of Trump – and I can’t stand the guy myself – he is a marketing genius. He is a savant of some kind when it comes to marketing. And where he sees the weakness, he will exploit it. Trump knows he can’t get elected on his two feet. What he’s trying to do is disqualify the Democrat Party. He looks for opportunities to do that by calling people socialists, by saying Democrats are for open borders, and by saying Democrats are anti-Israel. I think Democrats need to be very strategic in not falling into the traps that Donald Trump is laying for us.”
  

Comment: First, to contend that Trump is not an idiot is saying something! To me, it is a compliment to call Trump an idiot. He is far worse, an opportunist who ran an infomercial to get into the White House with no thought of arriving there, but just with a goal to pump his own brand.

• “Bennet explained why he stood to applaud the president during the State of the Union. When he said we’re never going to be a socialist country, I was the first Democrat out of their chair. I didn’t know this at the time, but Bernie Sanders is sitting right behind me and he’s sitting in his chair scowling while I’m standing up and applauding. The reason I was on my feet is that I’m not going to let him disqualify us that way. I know what he’s trying to do. … It’s not because I’m applauding him. It’s because I want to show that Democrats don’t feel that way. Most Democrats don’t.”

Comment: I hope that Bennet is right when he says “most Democrats don’t want socialism.” Standard bearers for the far left – Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, Warren — illustrate that they favor giving a free hand-out to everyone as they display again the left-wing penchant for spending all they can of other people’s money.

• “Asked about the Medicare-for-all bill that several of his Senate colleagues running for president have co-sponsored, Bennet made the case against the bill both on the substance and the politics. That legislation takes insurance away from 180 million people who get it from their employer, 80 per cent of whom like it. It takes it away from every single union that has collectively bargained for their health-care plan. It takes it away from 20 million people that have Medicare Advantage who love Medicare Advantage.

“We’re making it too easy for the people who don’t want to cover everybody. Donald Trump has been smart enough to figure out that he can agitate seniors about this question because he’s going to say to seniors, ‘Wait a minute, you guys had to wait until you were 65 years old. You spent your whole life paying into it. And now all of America is going to be in the plan with you.’ I have no problem with political slogans, but we have to have a plan for how to address this. … I want to say very clearly: This is a not a call for moderation. It is not a call for splitting the difference.”

Comment: For all of its frailties – and there are some – throwing out the entire health care system in this country to provide free government hand-outs makes no sense. Bennet is right to point out the fallacies of the Medicare for All dalliance – and I hope it becomes just that, a dalliance, not a formal proposal.

• “For me, this isn’t just about beating Trump, which I think is important and essential but not sufficient. We also have to figure out how to govern the country, and we’re not. We weren’t before Trump showed up. I’m not going to say one thing in the primary and something else in the general, and obviously I’m betting on the fact that that’s going to be appealing to people who want politicians to… level with them. That may sound naive, but I think that’s the only path that I have. And I don’t happen to think it’s naive because I think what’s naive is imagining that we can keep repeating what we’re doing in Washington – and this is even without Trump – and imagine that our kids and grandkids are going to remember us very favorably.”

Comment: Again, Bennet is on right on point. Beating Trump ought to be a top goal, so we, as Americans, don’t have to try to survive four more years of stupidity and worse.

As all of us consider presidential candidates for the 2020 election I, for one, intend to give Bennet a closer look.