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.

I now have even more time on my hands than I did in retirement. With everyone else, I am now faced with how to comply with a “Stay at Home” order in the coronavirus pandemic.

One option, I suppose, is literally to stay at home at ALL times, but, despite the emergency, that strikes me as a bit over the top.

Plus, even the government officials who imposed the “Stay at Home” order here in Oregon say it’s okay “to go for a walk.”

One question is whether I’ll be able to take that walk on a golf course.

So, amidst all this, I have been continuing to look for good quotes, which, as this blog headline says, may now not be “good,” but still worth reading.

Even as I write, so-called “political leaders” in Washington, D.C. are struggling to come up with a coronavirus response of legislation. So far, incredibly, they have failed.

Here’s the way Wall Street Journal editorial writers put it this morning:

“What a spectacle. Much of America is quarantined at home, the public is so panicked there’s a run on toilet paper, the country desperately wants reassurance, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide to take a bi-partisan rescue bill as a political hostage.”

Do I mean that Republicans are all right and Democrats like Pelosi and Schumer are all wrong? No. Middle ground is the place to be in the face of national catastrophe that ought to put the country on a “war footing” above the worst kind of politics.

Now, for the quotes.

FROM MARGARET SULLIVAN, THE WASHINGTON POST MEDIA CRITIC: “Trump press conferences have become a daily stage for Trump to play his greatest hits to captive audience members. They come in search of life-or-death information, but here’s what they get from him instead:

• Self-aggrandizement. When asked how he would grade his response to the crisis, the president said, “I’d rate it a 10.” Absurd on its face, of course, but effective enough as blatant propaganda
• Media-bashing. When NBC News’s Peter Alexander lobbed him a softball question in Friday’s briefing — “What do you say to Americans who are scared?” — Trump went on a bizarre attack. “I say, you’re a terrible reporter,” the president said, launching into one of his trademark “fake news” rants bashing Alexander’s employer.
• Exaggeration and outright lies. Trump has claimed that there are plenty of tests available (there aren’t); that Google is “very quickly” rolling out a nationwide website to help manage coronavirus treatment (the tech giant was blindsided by the premature claim); that the drug chloroquine, approved to treat malaria, is a promising cure for the virus and “we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.”

Trump is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan political benefit — a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the FDR of the 21st century.

The press — if it defines its purpose as getting truthful, useful, non-harmful information to the public, as opposed to merely juicing its own ratings and profits — must recognize what is happening and adjust accordingly.

Business as usual simply doesn’t cut it. Minor accommodations, like fact-checking the president’s statements afterward, don’t go nearly far enough to counter the serious damage this man is doing to the public’s well-being.

Radical change is necessary: The cable networks and other news organizations that are taking the president’s briefings as live feeds should stop doing so.

Comment: It never will be possible to take a microphone away from Trump. But, the media, if it does its job in the right way, should heed Sullivan’s advice. Don’t televise live all of his lies and personal aggrandizement.

FROM JENNIFER RUBIN IN THE WASHINGTON POST: If a captain on a ship froze in the middle of a crisis, he would be relieved of command. If a CEO routinely dispensed false information and was incapable of getting into the weeds to rescue his company from a disaster, he would be fired.

By any definition, Trump is failing, caring more about creating a Chinese boogeyman to blame than in competently addressing the problem before him.

This is not simply a matter of assigning blame for having left us unprepared and allowing precious time to slip by. This goes to Trump’s ongoing inability to competently manage the federal government. The Post reports that “the growing gulf between the White House and officials on the front lines of the pandemic underscored concerns in cities, states and Congress that Trump does not have a coherent or ready plan to mobilize private and public entities to confront a crisis that could soon push the nation’s health-care system to the brink of collapse.” In short, lives will be lost because no one can tell Trump he is wrong and making things worse.

Comment: Right, again. Trump is ill-prepared to lead the country in what should literally be “war-time footing” that the problem will be much worse than it already is.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: “I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down.” So says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public health expert trying to lead us through the coronavirus crisis.

Amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been charged with a herculean task: Trying to keep Trump’s public statements about the novel virus rooted in fact.

Now it appears that Fauci’s frustration is showing.

When asked Sunday by Science magazine’s Jon Cohen about having to stand in front of the nation as “the representative of truth and facts” when “things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual,” the 79-year-old said there is only so much he can do.

“I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down,” Fauci said, referencing Trump. “Okay, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.”

Comment: It could be contended that Fauci has THE most difficult job in the federal government – trying to provide facts and perspective about coronavirus when Trump does the reverse.

FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL WRITERS: Elizabeth Warren’s Ranting Resumes. We won’t go so far as to say bi-partisan comity has descended with the coronavirus crisis, but given the low standards of our time, it could be worse. Americans everywhere have stepped away from politics the past week to help each other. Even the Senate seems to be working toward a decent legislative response, though it is not done yet. Then there’s Elizabeth Warren.

In a series of tweets Sunday, Warren ranted (there’s no other word): “Millions may now lose their jobs. And Trump wants our response to be a half-trillion dollar slush fund to boost favored companies and corporate executives.” She calls the Senate bill a “bailout” and gripes “it makes no long-term changes to make future bailouts less likely.” What planet is she living on?

Comment: With Warren’s withdrawal from the Democrat presidential contest, I hoped we had heard the last of her rants. No. She’s back. I simply pledge not to listen to her any longer.