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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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, remember, is one of three departments I run with a free hand to operate them as I see fit.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Bits and Pieces.

So, here are more good quotes.

FROM MAX BOOT IN THE WASHINGTON POST/”At one level, it’s pathetic and even amusing that President Donald Trump is fabricating quotes to boost his fragile ego. But at another level, it’s terrifying, because he isn’t your dotty old uncle boasting of having landed a 500-pound marlin.

“There are real-world consequences when the most powerful man in the world lives in a make-believe universe where Greenland is for sale, video games v cause mass shootings, climate change is no big deal, and “trade wars are good and easy to win.”

“The unanswerable mystery is whether Trump is consciously lying or whether he believes his own drivel. The latter possibility is more terrifying, yet the former is scant comfort, either. Best-case scenario: The president is a pathological liar who repeatedly utters falsehoods that no one who does not work at Fox News could possibly believe. Worst case: He is a fantasist who cannot tell lies from truths, fantasy from reality.”

Comment: True, which is a hard word to utter in relation to Trump who has amassed a record for lying – more than 12,000 times, according to the Post’s Fact-Checker column. As Boot says, Trump believes his own stuff — and wields a black sharpie pen to prove it.

FROM JENNIFER RUBIN IN THE WASHINGTON POST/”He’s an embarrassment plain and simple. Donald Trump is the anti-McCain. Not only is he unhinged and unsteady, not only is he incapable of looking farther than his nose when it comes to foreign policy, but he also would rather lose a war than lose an election.”

Comment: Again, true. I have come to a belief, from my position in the cheap seats out West, that Trump is mentally deranged. And all of us as Americans are in danger as a result.

FROM AMANDA RIPLEY IN THE WASHINGTON POST: “As a journalist specializing in disasters, I have seen…creative denial in all manner of catastrophes — from market crashes to hurricanes. This summer, I saw it again, while watching the Democrat debates. First came the self-serious moderators, trolling for conflict. Next came the candidates, powdered and prepped. Cue the opening statements!”

Comment: Ripley has ideas about what to do about the presidential debate issue, just as we are preparing for another sham one for the Ds. Her idea:

“To help identify candidates, moderators could ask different questions. For example: Who in your inner circle routinely challenges your beliefs? Explain why someone might oppose abortion or gun control and still be a good person. Can you think of solutions to these issues so that neither side would have to compromise their core beliefs?

“Or get rid of the debate format altogether. Is the United States really yearning for more argument? Instead, give candidates an exercise, like in a real job interview. Put them in American living rooms where they listen to people whose life experiences and beliefs challenge their own. See which candidates can stay curious, without necessarily agreeing.

“What happens when you put Pete Buttigieg in the home of an African American family in Chicago? Or if you put Elizabeth Warren in a white evangelical Christian home in rural Tennessee? What if these families decided who “won” this contest — based on which candidate talked with them, not down to them?”

Good approach. Will it happen? Probably not, but anything is better than the drivel which passes for a Democrat presidential debate these days.

Now, later this year, add Trump to the mix and we have something not worth watching.