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.

The headline trumpets a key question as we head toward the 2020 presidential election. Are Donald Trump for the Republicans, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the Democrats standard-bearers for both parties.

I hope not.

For they deserve each other, even if some on both sides dispute the notion that they are standard-bearers because, if nothing else, standard-bearers have to have standards. Neither does.

First, each is nuts, without the first idea of what it means to govern with skill and diplomacy – from their posts on the far right for Trump and the far left for Ocasio-Cortez.

Can Trump be placed on any political spectrum, including the far right? Perhaps not, and, in this country, real conservatives would no doubt disavow Trump as illustrative of someone who wears the mantle of Republican. He defies explanation. Frankly, so does Ocasio-Cortez for Democrats on the left.

Second, solid, upstanding character is not an issue for either Trump or Ocasio-Cortez. They don’t have much, if any.

Third, lying comes naturally to each, so much so that they believe, often rightly in this day of social media “news,” that lying covers up a host of stupid, near-illegal actions.

Fourth, each craves media publicity. There is no higher calling thatn to get your names in newspapers or on-air. And, reporters and editors succumb to their entreaties, which is not good news for Americans who would benefit from a focus on “real news,” not Trump tweets or Ocasio-Cortez media blitzes.

A letter writer to the Wall Street Journal got it right this other day with this:

“In ‘Socialism? Yes, Be Afraid’ in his Wonder Land column on March 14, Daniel Henninger compares Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ideas to Jack Handey’s ‘Deep Thoughts’ bits on Saturday Night Live.

“Right comedy show, wrong character. Ocasio-Cortez is more like Gilda Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna or Emily Litella, always making an internally logical, if very irreverent argument, but one based on an intellectually wacky or unfounded premise (see Radner’s classic ‘Saving Soviet Jewelry’ as an example).

“The problem is no one else in the Democrat Party has either the common sense or courage of Radner’s skit partners, who leaned over to whisper in her ear, mid-rant, that her premise was nuts, the earnestness of her presentation notwithstanding. Gilda always gave us the sheepish look with a chagrined ‘Never mind!’ Ocasio-Cortez, instead, is too self-enchanted to ever admit her arguments might need a re-think.”

Then, consider Trump.

He never expected to be president, seeming to believe that campaigning was just an infomercial for his Trump brand. He figured it would be more publicity for him and nothing else mattered, because he values publicity over anything.

Trouble is, he won. And we all are worse for his victory. He wasn’t prepared for the White House and, in the words of a solid, experienced military veteran who served him, for a time, as head of the U.S. Department of State, he displayed no ability to prepare for anything, much less read anything about the presidency or its current challenges.

Now, I have a friend on the left who makes light of my comment that Ocasio-Cortez could be a standard-bearer for the Ds. He says she is just an after-thought, and to illustrate his point, he holds two fingers together closely to indicate that she is thin and doesn’t matter.

I beg to differ. She gets more air-time and news-space that any other Democrat even as erstwhile D candidates for president in 2020 adopt her costly ideas – free medical care for everyone, free college for everyone, reparations for “the slavery issue,” tear down all buildings and build new ones according to some kind of ill-defined “new green deal.”

No talk about the price for such ideas. And, of course, price doesn’t matter because, for many Democrats, they enjoy spending other people’s money.

So, I believe we can do better than either Trump or Ocasio-Cortez as we look for standard-bearers in both parties. Or, if we find no solid examples in today’s excuse for politics, we could look for a third-party candidate or candidates who can lead us to the smart middle on issues facing this country – all the while demonstrating high character and standards.

Trump and Ocasio-Cortez? No.

Better standard-bearers? Yes.