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.

The Department of Just Saying is one of three I run as director.  The others are the Departments of Pet Peeves and Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

It will come as no surprise to you that I run all three with skill and dexterity, which means I multi-task well.

ISSUE #1:  PRIVATE HEALTH CARE BACK IN GOOD GRACES…TEMPORARILY?/The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) notes that “Americans naturally turn to the government when their health or physical security is at risk, but a core U.S. strength is the breadth of its private medical resources.”

That’s on display now as is calling on private actors to buttress the federal response to the Coronavirus the government pandemic-in-the-making.

The Food and Drug Administration says it will allow hundreds of academic hospital labs to begin testing for the coronavirus.  The country had relied on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, but its testing kits turned out to be faulty.  By unleashing academic labs, the U.S. will have the capacity by the end of this week to screen “probably 10,000 people a day,” says Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner who writes for the WSJ.  Within two weeks that should be 20,000 a day, Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

JUST SAYING that it’s interesting that private health care is back in good graces, if only for a few moments, even as all of those running for the Democrat presidential nomination call for a complete government system – no private health care – and as the Trump
Administration, up to this point, has been setting out to thin the ranks of scientists in such departments as the CDC.

What’s needed, however, is a solid combination of government and private health care, which, together, will produce the capacity and the skill to serve citizens.

ISSUE #2:  BUTTIGIEG EXITS PRESIDENTIAL RACE/Sorry in some ways to see that Pete Buttigieg decided to drop out of the Democrat presidential race.  In a way, his decision represents a statesmanlike act because he did not see a way to win and wanted the country to focus on finding the best candidate among those remaining – if, I add, that is possible.

Here’s what one columnist, Daniel Drezner, said about the decision:

“Pete Buttigieg managed to surprise everyone again. He suspended his campaign last night.  The development marks an abrupt end to what was briefly an ascendant candidacy, as Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses and came in second in New Hampshire.  But despite attracting enormous attention, significant support and sometimes enthusiastic crowds, there was no clear path forward toward the nomination.”

JUST SAYING that we have not heard the last of Buttigieg.  He is young enough to rise again and I suspect he will.  To the current race, he brought intelligence chops, coming as he did from attending Harvard and being a Rhodes Scholar, but also a willingness to discuss tough issues with the ability to use good words in doing so.

He actually came across as someone who did not need to “yell on a street corner” to be heard, as is the case with the D who might win the nomination, Bernie Sanders.  Nor did Buttigieg, for all his youth, appear as ill-suited to the Oval Office as the person who now occupies it.

ISSUE #3:  SEAL TEAM LEADER GOES ON THE RECORD/In the Wall Street Journal, military Seal Team leader, William McRaven (he led the Team when it caught up with terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden), said this:

“As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”

JUST SAYING that McRaven is right and, on top of that, has earned the right to speak based on the incredible level of his service to the country.  Integrity and character do matter in politics, no matter that various political leaders or supposed-leaders on all sides violate the norms every day.  McRaven is right.