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.

A lot has been written lately – including by me – about the simplistic, narcissistic, ego-driven messages President Donald Trump has been conveying in the coronavirus pandemic which is continuing to haunt his presidency,

The risk, of course, is that what he says could lead to the deaths of individuals who take him at his word and, for example, ingest poisonous bleaches to clean the virus.

This time, however, I am going to posit some of the threads of messages any good president should be imparting in the midst of a national tragedy.

The main need is for a country’s leader to express hope for the future, even in the face of long odds. Doing something else only imparts confusion and dissension.

So, here is my quick list of important points to emphasize during a pandemic:

• Thank those working hard despite the risks of doing so in a pandemic.
• Express empathy for the families and loved ones of those who have passed.
• Advocate working together to solve incredibly difficult challenges – and that includes bi-partisan, middle-of-the-road political strategies.
• Tout scientific advances, but allow room for those to develop so they are not just quack theories.
• Yield at least some of the communications turf to experts who have credible backgrounds in finding solutions.

You may have your own list of points to emphasize, but it is so far true, unfortunately, that Trump has said all the wrong things due to his narcissistic impulses and lack of any overarching strategy – and using the word “strategy” in regard to Trump is inappropriate because he has none.

It’s time for a change – past time.

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.

History, if we ever get there in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, will not look kindly at how the media has covered the buffoon, reality-TV host who occupies the Oval Office.

That host, Donald Trump, has played the media like a drum.

Media columnist Margaret Sulliivan lays out this sad story in a piece for the Washington Post. It appeared under this headline:

“Trump has played the media like a puppet. We’re getting better — but history will not judge us kindly.”

I appreciated reading Sullivan’s trenchant analysis if only because I was trained as a journalist and, back in the day, was a reporter for a daily newspaper in Oregon. That gave me first-hand experience in the importance of a solid craft – being a journalist – with a view to serving readers ethically and honestly.

“I very much doubt, Sullivan wrote, “that history will judge mainstream journalism to have done a terrific job covering this president — including in this difficult moment.

“On the contrary, the coverage, overall, has been deeply flawed.”

Sullivan emphasizes several aspects of the flawed coverage:

• For nearly five years, the story has been Trump. And, in all that time, the press is still — mostly — covering him on the terms he dictates. We remain mesmerized, providing far too much attention to the daily circus he provides.
• We normalize far too much, offering deference to the office he occupies and a benefit of the doubt that is a vestige of the dignified norms of presidencies past.
• Trump has been able to make it all about him, and the press — with some notable exceptions — too often allows him to turn the coverage into a carnival. You can’t let the person you’re covering set the terms of the coverage, but that’s exactly what he has done.
• Every day — sometimes every hour — there’s some new craziness to distract us. Here is Trump suggesting that ingesting disinfectants may cure the coronavirus. Here he is trashing reporters on Twitter who won Pulitzer Prizes by talking about revoking their Nobel Prizes — but misspelling it as “Noble.” Here he is claiming he will somehow punish reporters by not having his near-daily briefings — and then changing his mind.
• And then we come back for more, writing headlines that somehow combine the words “Trump” and “strategy.” Or ponder in cable-news panels whether he’s turned the corner and started acting more presidential. Or downplay the sheer madness of the disinfectant idea with a news alert politely stating that ‘some experts’ call it dangerous.
• Television’s live coverage of briefings continues at many news organizations — allowing Trump to dominate the late-afternoon airwaves, day after day, with torrents of misinformation and narcissistic bragging.

Sullivan continues to quote a reporter for the Irish Times who said: “It is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds, but that this behavior has become normalized. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show anymore.

“He added, pointedly: ‘For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.’”

There. An incredible, bottom-line point.

Many Americans believe the drivel Trump spews every day, or perhaps even every moment. He tells a lie, then doubles-down as if the lie is not a lie and, as he emphasizes and re-emphasizes it, it becomes his version of truth,

Focus on just one of Trump’s demonstrably falsehoods: His statement that the country has done more tests “than the entire world combined.” Trump has said this over and over, and it has been corrected over and over, for it is demonstrably false.

He doesn’t care. He repeats it. And soon it becomes his version of the truth, reinforced by many reporters who repeat it, even if they also correct it.

When you cannot believe anything said by the person who sits in the Ova Office, better to ignore him – and hope for something credible to replace him.

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.

Remember the movie, “The Bucket List?”

It was a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The main plot followed two terminally ill men on their road trip with a wish-list of things to do before they “kicked the bucket”

Well, rather than kick the bucket, I build off that film title to think of my golf bucket list. Yes! Golf.

It is my hobby and some would say I am addicted to it.

So be it.

As has been the case recently, I thought of this subject by reading a piece in the latest on-line issue of Links Magazine. The writer, Adam Stanley, provided a summary of his five-part golf bucket list, which I won’t repeat here, but it was thought-provoking for me.

Here is my list – and, if you notice a desire to return to old venues, that’s intentional because I have had the privilege of playing some great tracks in my 70-plus years and want to do so again.

PLAY ROYAL DORNOCH AGAIN: Royal Dornoch in the small town of Dornoch on the Scottish north coast, is a great course memorialized in the book, A Season in Dornoch,” which was written by a great golf writer, Lorne Rubenstein.

He chronicled the five months he and his wife spent in Dornoch, living in a flat above a bookstore, which I visited on my first sojourn in the small town.

I have had the pleasure of playing the course three times and want to do so again. The first time was with my son, Eric, and we had a great father-son bonding time.

PLAY THE OLD COURSE AT ST. ANDREWS AGAIN: In the same way, I want to go back to the home of golf, St. Andrews, and play the iconic Old Course again. The first time I did I also played with Eric and we had a great time.

We arrived in St. Andrews on a Sunday when the course is closed and functions like a park for residents and visitors alike. We had our obligatory picture taken on the Swilcan Bridge and the photo still resides in a place of prominence in my man cave.

The last time I played the Old Course I was fortunate enough to be with my daughter who was very nervous as she arrived at the first tee hard by the clubhouse of the Royal & Ancient with many visitors lined up to see folks tee off.

The great news? She piped her drive well down the first tee and, together, we had a great father-daughter experience as we plied 18 holes of great links golf.

PLAY CASTLE STUART GOLF COURSE AGAIN: And, in the same way, I hope to be able to play Castle Stuart again in Scotland. Compared to the Old Course or many other courses in Scotland, it is very new, having been built about 2008 on land that lies hard by the Moray Firth.

It is a proto-typical links-style track designed by architect Mark Parsinen who also designed the acclaimed Kingsbarns in St. Andrews.

My fondest memory of Castle Stuart is when I got to play the course with my daughter just after Phil Mickelson had won the Scottish Open there before he headed over to Muirfield to win THE Open (the British Open) in 2013 on top of the Scottish.

The fact that Mickelson is my daughter’s favorite golfer made the visit all the more special.

The staff at Castle Stuart told us that, after Mickelson won, he stayed around for a couple hours signing autographs for fans who had waited for him to sign his scorecard and hoist the winning trophy.

Plus, we got to play Castle Stuart with the same pins as had been used on the last day of the Scottish Open – and, to put a point on it, it will be no surprise for me to admit that none of us played as well as Mickelson did!

PLAY PEBBLE BEACH GOLF COURSE: Now, on to a new course I have not played, but want to play.

It is Pebble Beach that sits hard by the Pacific Ocean as golfers try to fathom the winds and slopes of a course that has been made famous on TV.

The closest I got to play Pebble Beach was many years ago when I served in the Oregon National Guard and spent two weeks every summer at Fort Ord, about 10- miles from Pebble Beach. I played other courses in the area – while defending the United States, of course. But never ventured out to Pebble.

Someday I’ll play the great track, absorbing the huge cost – more than $500 – to do so.

PLAY ILLAHE HILLS GOLF COURSE: I live just above the 7^th hole on this 60-year-old course in Salem, Oregon where I have been fortunate to be a member for more than 30 years.

I put this in my bucket list intentionally because I hope to grow even older playing this great, local track. I never get tired of doing so.

Therefore, easy for me to have this on my bucket list.

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.

Remember the time about three years ago or so.

Donald Trump has just been elected president and many of us who favor reasonable and credible government couldn’t believe that a blabbermouth TV reality show how could ascend to the highest political office in the land.

Then, he and his sycophants contended that the largest audience ever had gathered at the Capitol to watch his inauguration.

That was only the start of a litany of lies and exaggerations that has marked this president, putting him clearly in the position as the worst president in U.S. history.

And, if that was all it was – a ranking among presidents – it would be one thing. But Trump’s actions and behavior risk the lives of Americans, which has become especially clear in the coronavirus pandemic. He is a narcissist who thinks always and only of himself.

Then, just what you thought Trump had gone as low as possible, there comes more.

He advises Americans to inject poisonous bleach “for a cleaning” in response to Covid 19.

Say what?

You heard right. Inject poison to save yourself!

Here’s how several Washington Post columnists wrote about this surreal line of comments from Trump:

FROM ALEXANDRA PETRI: “The nightmare of the Trump years is the nightmare of watching someone pour bleach onto a plant and not understand that he is killing it, and then not care that he is killing it. It is the nightmare of watching someone listen to the president, self-administer chloroquine and die. It is a president who does not know poison from medicine and is too ignorant to care that there is a difference.

“Please, don’t inject bleach.”

FROM DANA MILBANK: “My study hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, but my evidence is very strong: President Trump has overdosed on hydroxychloroquine.

“Trump, who claims a “natural instinct for science” not from formal training but because his late uncle was a scientist, once used this innate ability to determine that climate change was a hoax and that windmills cause cancer. More recently he mobilized the U.S. government to make sure thousands of covid-19 patients were treated with the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin — because Trump’s instinct told him the drug cocktail would be a ‘phenomenal game changer.’

“Sadly, evidence from all over suggests that the drugs cause heart problems and worsen death rates.

“No matter! The stable genius dropped his hydroxychloroquine hypothesis faster than you can say ‘snake oil’ and is now touting a new miracle cure for the virus: Injecting the ling with bleach, alcohol or other common disinfectants, possibly along with massive doses of heat and ultraviolet light.

“This was an extended conversation reflecting the grotesque ignorance and total unfitness of the man who at every turn has failed to protect the country during the worst domestic crisis since the Great Depression. It illustrated how he intellectually corrupts those around him, forcing them to sacrifice their own credibility to defend his inanities.”

FROM JENNIFER RUBIN: “But this is not simply another gaffe for Trump or even another dumb idea like the wall. This was an extended conversation reflecting the grotesque ignorance and total unfitness of the man who at every turn has failed to protect the country during the worst domestic crisis since the Great Depression. It illustrated how he intellectually corrupts those around him, forcing them to sacrifice their own credibility to defend his inanities.”

FROM DAVID VON DREHLE: “I thought — hoped — we had hit a low point in the federal response to the covid-19 pandemic when Vice President Pence, chair of the White House task force on the novel coronavirus, toured Sunday morning news shows last week to set a world record for saying nothing in the most possible words.

“Yet this paled next to Trump’s ramblings about disinfectants. Somewhere on the short walk from a scientific briefing to the press room podium, a notion had lodged in the presidential cranium, which meant it had to come out: If Lysol or Clorox can kill viruses on countertops, maybe an ‘injection’ could provide covid-19 patients ‘almost a cleaning.’”

To all those who voted for Trump and could think of doing so again, I say just look at the record and double-dealing. Think of your own word to describe the ignoramus in the Oval Office and find someone – anyone – better to do the job of leading this country.

 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.

As I have been sitting at home during the coronavirus pandemic, my mind has sometimes wandered to an arcane subject – golf rules.

To some of my friends, it will not be a surprise that this is true, especially to one whose wife loves golf rules as much, if not more, than I do.

Yes, I am golf rules junkie. And sometimes, lately, this has extended to rules on golf handicapping, which are often hard to fathom, especially if the still-new World Handicapping System puts my personal handicap so low I cannot play to it.

Oh well. Such is life for a golf-addicted person – me.

Links Magazine contributed to my thinking about golf rules when its “golf insider” on-line edition produced a story under this headline: ”Rules of Disorder: 10 Moments That Shouldn’t Have Happened.”

As I reviewed the list of rules incidents on professional golf tours, I would have remembered only about half of them.

Here is a list of the incidents, abbreviated for readability:

1.  Roberto De Vicenzo 1968 Masters
: April of 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of a memorable Masters—but one that made its indelible mark in history for the wrong reasons. A Sunday in Augusta that should have been remembered for Roberto De Vicenzo holing out for an eagle on the first hole on the way to a 65, and for Bob Goalby shooting a 66 to set up a playoff, instead became notorious for De Vicenzo signing an incorrect scorecard that left him one stroke behind a champion whose title would forever be marked with a figurative asterisk.

2:  Jackie Pung, 1957 U.S. Women’s Open
: Pung, like De Vicenzo, signed an incorrect scorecard, but her situation was even worse. Seemingly a one-stroke winner over Betsy Rawls at Winged Foot Golf Club’s East Course, Pung was disqualified for signing for a score on a hole lower than what she actually shot—marker Betty Jameson had written down a “5” instead of a “6” on the 4th hole. In an effort to lessen the sting, Winged Foot members took up a collection and handed Pung more than $3,000 (first place paid $1,800).

3:  Craig Stadler, 1987 Andy Williams Open: In the third round, Stadler knelt to play a shot from near a tree on the 14th hole, putting a towel on the ground to keep his pants dry. At the beginning of Sunday’s telecast, NBC included the shot in a package of highlights. Unfortunately for Stadler, a recent addition to the USGA’s Decisions on the Rules had deemed such use of a towel to be “building a stance.” Upon finishing the final round in an apparent tie for second, Stadler was informed that he was DQ’d for not including a two-stroke penalty in his third-round score.

4:  Lexi Thompson, 2017 ANA Inspiration: In 2016, golf rules were changed to allow penalty strokes to be added retroactively, including two extra strokes for an incorrect scorecard. That didn’t save Thompson. Leading by two after completing the 12th hole of the final round, Thompson was informed that four strokes were being added to her third-round score because she had replaced her ball on the green in a slightly wrong spot. Thompson rallied to tie So Yeon Ryu in regulation, only to lose a playoff. The incident precipitated a pair of Rules changes for 2018: no more consideration of viewer call-ins or emails (a tournament official will monitor broadcasts) and no additional two-stroke penalty for an incorrect scorecard if discovered after the scorecard is signed.

5:  Dustin Johnson, 2010 PGA Championship
: After missing a putt on the 72nd hole, Johnson thought he was headed to a sudden-death playoff. Instead, he was met by a Rules official who informed him of an impending two-stroke penalty after TV-watching officials had seen him ground his club in the sand of one of Whistling Straits’s outside-the-gallery-ropes bunkers. Johnson ended up T5.

6:  Dustin Johnson, 2016 U.S. Open: At least Johnson won this time, but it was an ugly situation as he was informed on the 12th tee during the final round that he was subject to a penalty for causing his ball to move on the 5th green while grounding his putter for a practice stroke. The ruling was controversial, as was the fact that the one-stroke penalty wasn’t applied until a post-round review, so as the championship came down the stretch the players didn’t know what the leading score was. It’s a scene that won’t be repeated:

Under a commonly adopted new local rule, a player is no longer penalized for accidentally causing his ball to move on the putting green.

7:  Arnold Palmer, 1958 Masters: Leading by a stroke during the final round, Palmer was told by a rules official that he wouldn’t get a drop for an embedded ball behind the 12th green. Palmer didn’t agree and played a second ball, making a par instead of the double bogey he made with the original. It wasn’t until the 15th hole—after Palmer had eagled 13—that the rules committee gave Palmer a par on the 12th. He ultimately won his first major by one stroke.

8:  Tiger Woods, 2013 Masters]: During the second round, Woods had the misfortune of hitting the flagstick with an approach shot to the 15th hole, his ball ricocheting into a pond and necessitating a drop. A viewer called in pointing out that it appeared Tiger hadn’t taken his drop at the point of his stroke, but the rules committee looked at the video and deemed the drop proper. Then Woods told reporters he had purposely dropped two yards behind the previous spot, essentially incriminating himself. A two-stroke penalty was applied, but the committee waived disqualifying him for an incorrect scorecard because of its previous review of the incident.

9:  Suzann Pettersen, 2015 Solheim Cup” When Alison Lee of the U.S. picked up an 18-inch putt after Europeans Pettersen and Charley Hull started to walk away and the referee began announcing that the hole had been halved, Pettersen piped up and said the putt hadn’t been conceded. That gave the 17th hole, and ultimately the four-ball match, to Europe.

10.  More on Solheim: Another case of Solheim Cup acrimony came in 2000 when Annika Sorenstam holed a chip shot but U.S. captain Pat Bradley made her replay it because she had played out of turn.

For me, though I did not watch the De Vicenzo Masters at the time, I have seen it enough on TV that it still ranks at the top of any rules list I would devise.

Number 10 above also ranks high for me, but for another reason. Barb Trammell, the current CEO of the Oregon Golf Association (where I am a member of the Board of Directors), had a ringside seat for the Sorenstam reply. Barb was one of the rules officials on that day, so it as been nothing but interesting to talk to her about re-living that experience.

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 published a blog this morning including some Good Quotes Worth Remembering including one about Donald Trump, the quack, touting the benefits of ingesting household cleaners as a way to oppose coronavirus.

Well, I feel compelled to post this additional piece, given two comments I just read in the Washington Post – one by Kathleen Parker and another by Dana Milbank.

FROM PARKER: “Given Trump’s keen interest in pursuing new cures, perhaps he would consider participating in an experiment to determine the effectiveness of cleansers in eradicating covid-19 in the human body. Of course, he’d first have to willingly expose himself to infection, as he seems to think other Americans should by encouraging governors to reopen their states. Or, rather than take the risky path of injecting bleach, he might just take a warm bath in the stuff.

“The living need to be told how to avoid getting sick, not some quackery from a reality-TV-star-cum-president.”

FROM MILBANK: “My study hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, but my evidence — based on a hunch that originated in my gut — is very strong: President Trump has overdosed on hydroxychloroquine.

“Trump, who claims a “natural instinct for science” not from formal training but because his late uncle was a scientist, once used this innate ability to determine that climate change was a hoax and that windmills cause cancer. More recently he mobilized the U.S. government to make sure thousands of covid-19 patients were treated with the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin — because Trump’s instinct told him the drug cocktail would be a “phenomenal” “game changer.”

“Sadly, evidence from all over suggests that the drugs cause heart problems and worsen death rates.

“No matter! The stable genius dropped his hydroxychloroquine hypothesis faster than you can say “snake oil” and is now touting a new miracle cure for the virus: injecting the lungs with bleach, alcohol or other common disinfectants, possibly along with massive doses of heat and ultraviolet light.

“As it happens, I, too, have a natural instinct for science (my brother is a urologist) and I have used it to conclude that hydroxychloroquine abuse has caused Trump and some top aides and allies to suffer a condition we experts refer to as acute nuttiness.”

Nothing more needs to be written…at least this morning

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.

With not much else to do – yes, golf is still, fortunately, an option – I am opening the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering again this morning. It is one of three departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

With the coronavirus virus still wreaking havoc, there are a number of good quotes, so here goes.

TRUMP UNHINGED: Washington Post writers showed up this morning with this:

“The federal government scrambled Friday to stave off a potential wave of public health emergencies sparked by President Trump’s dangerous suggestion that injecting bleach or other household disinfectants into the body might cure people of the novel coronavirus.

“It was only the latest dubious medical tip from a president struggling to contain a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans. The Food and Drug Administration warned Friday against the use of hydroxychloroquine — the anti-malarial drug that Trump repeatedly has promoted as a “game-changer” miracle cure for covid-19 — because it has been found to cause serious heart rhythm problems.

“At Thursday night’s White House coronavirus news conference, Trump used his pulpit to float the idea of injecting a disinfectant into one’s body “almost as a cleaning” — a prescription that surprised some aides who said it seemed to come out of nowhere.”

COMMENT: Just try to think about what Trump-the-unhinged might do next and you could not come up with this. Ingest household bleach and other cleaning chemicals! Right.

But, Trump, who never reads or studies anything, heard about the good effects of chemicals on some surfaces and thought – yeah, how about cleaning out the body, too.

Think of new words to describe Trump. Unhinged. Ignoramus (as we used by a columnist yesterday). Quack. The problem, of course is that some citizens take Trump at his word and will die as a result.

A PERFECT STORM: Using a solid analogy, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote this Friday:

“’We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm.’ That succinct summation came from the writer Damian Barr. He’s right. Some are in yachts, he said, and “some have just the one oar.

“Some will sail through, health and profession intact, some will lose one or both. Some of us get to feel we’re part of a substantial crew. Some of us feel we’re rowing alone.

“We can move forward through this crisis experiencing our country as an embittered navy waiting to fight it out on shore. Or, alternatively, as a big crazy armada with millions of people throwing and catching millions of lifelines. Which I suppose is how a lot of us tend to see this country of deep inequalities and glittering possibilities. The latter attitude will be more helpful in getting us through, and as Lincoln observed, attitude is everything.”

COMMENT: Noonan’s analogy – being in the same boat in a storm – to describe the coronavirus, Noonan went on to advocated concerted action to get through the pandemic.

She was a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. I wish she was still doing that job for Trump – but she would never stoop to such depths and, even if she did, Trump would say what he want to say regardless of the adverse effect.

STATE ACTION RE: CORONAVIRUS: At least two developments occurred this week according to Oregon news sources:

On top of federal action, the Joint Oregon Legislative Emergency Board approved $30 million to help Oregonians.

Expenditures include $10 million to create the small business administration program, $10 million for the Worker Relief Fund, $2 million to help provide emergency housing for survivors of domestic violence, and $12 million in safe shelter and rental assistance.

Governor Kate Grown also lifted a ban on non-urgent medical services as long as providers met a bunch of conditions.

COMMENT: The actions represented just a bit of good news amidst the pandemic. E-Board action, for one thing, avoided legislators having to congregate in Salem. Lifting the ban on non-urgent medicine should help hospitals and clinics.

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.

Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin captured Donald Trump perfectly yesterday in what she wrote under this headline:

‘Stable genius’ or dangerous ignoramus?

To prompt the ignoramus label, here is what Trump said:

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out, in a minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside, or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. You’re going to have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me.”

Rubin labeled it correctly as “Trump’s contribution to the portfolio of misinformation, quackery and jaw-dropping ignorance he has shared with the American people during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Trump, of course, didn’t stop there with that inanity.

“I would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there’s any way you can apply light and heat to cure. You know? If you could,” Trump said to Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator. “And maybe you can, maybe you can’t . . . I’m not a doctor.”

Rubin continued: “Birx, blinking so nervously one would have thought she was transmitting Morse code (“Get me out of here!”), looked like she wanted to disappear into the folds of her silk scarf. She managed to say with a straight face that, no, that would not be a treatment.”

Medical doctors were compelled to warn people not to ingest poisonous chemicals and the makers of Lysol felt obliged to say “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”

We can laugh about Trump’s ignorance and inanity, but like his hawking of hydroxychloroquine — which induced hoarding of medication needed by patients with other diseases (and perhaps others to harm themselves) — but Rubin says this is one more instance in which concern for public safety should spur news networks to discontinue live coverage of the daily briefings.

“Like a con man peddling patent medicine, Trump dispenses false hope and crackpot remedies, thereby promoting disdain for scientific inquiry and valid research. Once more, one is compelled not only to shudder that such an intellectually unfit man could be president, but that legions of right-wing hucksters and sycophants could regularly contort themselves not merely to defend his blabbering but also to lionize him.”

If there is just a bit good news here, it is that a new Associated Press poll shows that only 23 per cent of Americans have a high level of trust in what Trump says.

I find it disturbing that the trust number is as high as 23 per cent. Zero is more accurate.

And, I hope the lack of Trust gives Joe Biden and his running mate, whomever that turns out to be, an opportunity to restore the ethics and credibility of the Presidency – which could mean that the win country’s top political job.

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.

As we stay at home, with a lot of time on our hands, it is easy to spend some of that time thinking about the pandemic.

• How did it start?
• Will I or my family be infected or affected?
• When, if at all, will life return to normal?
• What is the prediction for an effective vaccine?
• Will the economy be able to re-start and how quickly?

Normal questions for all of us.

For me, I have thought about a few issues in the pandemic as, fortunately, between golf games on a course that has remained open, I have had time on my hands. You’ll no doubt be glad to know that I may have more impressions, but, for now, here are a few.

NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS OR BORDERS: This is not a big, new thought, but consider the point for a moment.

The coronavirus honors no borders. Everyone is subject to contracting it. No block of persons or countries is immune.

COMMENT: So, this is truly is a world issue, more widespread than even, say World Wars I or II. And the reality argues for collective effort – world effort — to stall the virus, which no one country can handle on its own.

ABOUT THE PROTESTS: Relatively small protests have broken out in the United States in recent days against the restrictions designed to slow the spreading virus.

As Washington Post editorial writers said: “People have a right to protest, if they conduct themselves without endangering others. But leaders have an obligation to point out that the behavior the protesters are encouraging could reignite the virus and cost lives.

“The pursuit of liberty does not mean a license to endanger the lives of others.”

COMMENT: Another way to put it: If you are going to engage in civil disobedience, the consequences, if there are consequences, should fall on you, not your neighbors.

THE CRITICAL VARIABLE IN RE-OPENING: The Wall Street Journal carried this story earlier this week:

“Governments across Europe and in the U.S. say they have driven down a key variable to levels that suggest that the lockdowns that plunged their economies into the deep freeze are succeeding in containing the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.

“The variable measures the average number of other people each carrier of the new coronavirus infects. This infection ratio will be avidly watched as policy makers calibrate the task of rolling back measures that have kept hundreds of millions of people at home.

“If the reproduction ratio is below one, the epidemic peters out. The closer to one, the slower the decline, and the greater risk of a resurgence. If the ratio sticks above one, the epidemic will gather momentum. The good news is across Europe and in parts of the U.S. the ratio has fallen below one.”

COMMENT: Fascinating point. As tough as it will be to measure, it strikes me that this “critical variable” provides a credible basis for decisions about re-opening. Of course, more testing is also critical.

HEALTH AND THE ECONOMY: If we didn’t already know it, the coronavirus pandemic has shown that health vitality and economic vitality are inextricably linked.

Maintaining health is one obvious priority. But maintaining economic vitality is another, for, with a downturn, there can be an adverse effect on health, not just on the economy.

Look only so far as the current economic problems that are forcihng some hospitals, especially in rural areas, to the brink of collapse and some clinics to lay off hundreds of employees.

COMMENT: All I can say is that I would not want to be in a position where I had to make decisions about what to do next. Another way of saying this is that I am willing to give political leaders – those who are trying to be honest and forthright as they make decisions (which, I add, removes Donald Trump from the equation) – some room to operate.

No matter the decision, the results will be opposed by someone or by some group. For one thing, there is no right answer…just a series of options.

PROSPECTS FOR A VIRUS VACCINE: Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) showed up this week with a solid piece of journalism, better than I have seen anywhere else. These were the first paragraphs in a story on prospects for a vaccine.

“When any new and dangerous infectious disease comes on the scene, there’s an immediate and concerted push to develop a vaccine. For COVID-19, federal health officials have said we will have a vaccine in 12-18 months. \

“Just last week, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS, there have been “no glitches” in the process and that it’s “possible to shave a couple months off that.”

“But this timeline is optimistic – perhaps exceedingly so. The reasons have to do with the complexities of vaccine testing, development and production.

COMMENT: The key to surviving the virus is to come up with a vaccine and, with Fauci, I hope the clinical trial regime can be shorter than normal.

Go on line at opb.org to get solid information on this issue.

NOTE: THIS IS INSTALLMENT TWO ON THIS SUBJECT

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 wrote yesterday about the subject of political leadership, suggesting that, if there is one salient fact about it, it is this: You know leadership when you see it as opposed to when someone says they have it.

It is easy to talk about leadership. It takes effort, commitment and ingenuity to display it.

During my 40 years of involvement in politics, I have seen what I would label credible political leadership. In that time, I developed a few perceptions about leadership credentials, which I will share in this blog.

I was motivated to deal with this subject, frankly, by what I see in the current occupant of Oval Office in Washington, D.C., one Donald Trump who demonstrates exactly none of qualities I list below.

I also think the traits I list below apply in general, but assume even greater importance during a challenging time, such as we are in now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

So, here is my list of key political leadership traits, which is identical to what I wrote yesterday, except that I have been specific this time around about how Trump possesses none of the traits.  Just call him an easy target.

INTEGRITY: Without honesty and a sense of ethical behavior, there can be no qualified leader.

The dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

Look only at Trump. He tells an untold number of lies every day with no recognition of the consequences.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Without accountability, there can be no qualified leader.

A lot of politicians who suggest they are leaders are adept at pointing the finger at everyone else rather than taking responsibility for their own actions.

Look only at Trump. As second nature, he practices the blame game.

This is the way columnist Dana Milbank put in it in the Washington Post:

“Trump came to power on the basis of smears — against opponents, immigrants and minorities. Now he prepares to center his re-election campaign on demonizing China, even though he repeatedly praised China’s response to the virus, specifically that of his ‘very, very good friend,’ Chinese President Xi Jinping. Key to this attack is making a scapegoat of the World Health Organization, which fits his usual criteria because, like the U.N. and the World Trade Organization, it is an international entity run by a foreigner.”

COMPROMISE: Ability to find middle ground should be one goal of a political leader who understands that anything good in politics is a tribute to people working together, not to any one person.

But beyond talk, a leader must be able to provide concrete examples of when he or she was able to bring disparate parties together to produce solutions.

Look only at Trump. He does not recognize compromise because he always, in his own mind, as a narcissist, is the smartest person in any room and, thus, does not pay attention to the thoughts of anyone else.

COMMUNICATION: Any good leader demonstrates the ability to communicate his or her thoughts in a way that generates understanding, and perhaps even support.

A leader must be able to speak in complete sentences that convey coherent messages, as well as to invite conversations and exchanges that prompt him or her to expand their horizons beyond what they may know themselves.

Look only at Trump. His vocabulary is so limited that he has trouble stringing words together in a sentence that makes sense. And he demonstrates no interest in listening to views other than his own.

EMPATHY: Any good leader demonstrates the ability to share the feelings of those he or she represents.

A leader must have the courage to show emotion and feeling in the midst of tragedy and be able to console in response to pain and suffering.

Look only at Trump. In the current coronavirus pandemic, he has squandered any opportunity to express any genuine concern for the plight of those who have experienced dislocation, if not worse, in the current pandemic. To fail at this is to fail at a central function of the presidency.

HUMILITY: Any good leader demonstrates the ability to accept responsibility for mistakes, admit political failures, and acknowledge their own contributions to a problem.

A leader must be able to say, “I am not perfect. I’ve made decisions that, with the benefit of hindsight, may not have been the best. But I have learned through these situations, which will influence how I interact with others and make decisions in the future.”

A leader also must be smart enough and savvy enough to know what he or she does NOT know and decisive enough to surround themselves with others who can fill in the gaps.

Such self-effacing ability does not risk leadership; instead, it supports it.

Look only at Trump. He is never responsible for anything that doesn’t work out as planned…as if Trump, a seat-of-the-pants operator, makes advance plans for anything. He doesn’t.

In hill.com yesterday, columnist Niall Stange wrote this:

“Trust in President Trump’s ability to deal with the coronavirus crisis — and even to impart reliable information about it — is eroding, posing a significant danger to his re-election hopes.

“In several polls, the share of the population that finds Trump trustworthy on the crisis is lower than his overall job approval number — an indication that the lack of public trust cannot be attributed only to the nation’s partisan divide.

“The fact that concerns about Trump’s accuracy are felt beyond the ranks of his ideological foes could be a political time-bomb as the nation begins to grapple with the tough question of when to begin reopening.”

Or this from Washington Post political columnist David Byler:

”If Trump wins a second term, Americans will understandably start to see him as the new normal. Attacks on the press, Twitter outbursts, constant lying, authoritarian saber-rattling, complete incompetence, disregard for expertise — all these features of Trumpism will be permanent parts of our politics.”

Here’s hoping the lack-of-trust factor brings Trump down.