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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

As the Republican National Convention (RNC) has just ended – mercifully — I cannot help but think of various words to describe Donald Trump as, incredibly, he seeks a second term after such a disastrous four years in office.

I have not watched or listened to the RNC, but I have read just enough to know that it was just another reality TV show venture for Trump and his sycophants.

So, here are the first words that come to my mind when I think of Trump

• Lacks HONESTY. Why else lies come to him as second nature?
• Lacks a CONSCIENCE.  Why else, for example, could he tolerate his own action to separate immigrant children from their families?
• Lacks EMPATHY.  Why else would he criticize U.S. military war hero John McCain, both in life and in death?
• Lacks decency. Why else would he act toward women as if they are just objects.

Finally, with help from my wife, I thought of this old saying – “The emperor has no clothes.”

According to my on-line dictionary, “this expression is used to describe a situation in which people are afraid to criticize something or someone because the perceived wisdom of the masses is that the thing or person is good or important.”

Right.  That’s true at least of Trump’s sycophants – and, I hope, not the masses.

We need a leader in the Office of President who will be honest, empathetic, decent, and act with a conscience.

This fall, that’s Joe Biden.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I had an interesting discussion the other day about whether Donald Trump follows any strategy in his bid for a second term as president.

For me, during my tenure as a State of Oregon manager and as a lobbyist, honing a strategy was a first step in deciding what to do. Commit to a strategy, then follow up with tactics designed to achieve the overarching goal.

If you start with tactics, first, they often are easier to divine and, second, they might not serve the strategy.

Sound like Trump? Does he pursue a strategy or strategies?

I say no. Emphatically.

Trump always flies by the seat of his pants, saying anything and everything that happens to pop into his brain. Strategy be damned.

We got another dose of the sans-strategy approach at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that opened this week.

It was a paean to the greatness of Trump who was exclaimed to be a an exalted leader who would save Americans from the evils of the Democrats…all of them.

By contrast, reputable political polling had said the election should be about anything but Trump, given his tendency to lie at every turn, to enable the pandemic to succeed beyond bounds, and to treat the presidency as just another reality TV show.

Republican strategists – and they were usually quoted off the record so as to avoid irritating Trump – suggested the RNC should be about other stuff than Trump. For instance, what do Republicans want to do for American if they remain in charge?

Then, Trump showed up, injecting himself into every aspect of the convention. He couldn’t help it; remember, he is the exact representation of a narcissist.

One political commentator in the Washington Post put it this way:

“We could have saved the brain-power we spent on speculation. The first night of the GOP convention was, inevitably, a cocktail of kitsch spiked with dystopian fiction, an outsize slice of American cheese served up to a president in desperate need of comfort food. As an act of communication with the American public, it was a dishonest travesty. But as entertainment tailored for President Trump’s hardcore base, it was a brilliant act of fan service.”

There you have it. All about Trump.

My hope is that the focus on Trump – remember he will continue to put himself at the center of every issue – will work to the advantage of the Democrats this fall.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Every once in awhile, a column runs in the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post that deserves to be reprinted in my blog, without much, if any, comment from me.

Such a piece ran in the Post this morning written by political commentator Kathleen Parker.

Here, then, is a key excerpt without comment, for it deserves to stand alone:

“Decency, empathy and reason are, of course, the opposite of what one sees or expects from the incumbent president. Trump’s indecent dog whistles to America’s underbelly, his winks at racists and misogynists (Charlottesville and grab’m); his utter lack of empathy (migrant children torn from their parents and housed in glorified cages); his rejection of reason and science regarding covid-19 (or anything else that runs counter to his singular purpose of self-aggrandizement and the satisfaction of his rapacious narcissism) — all point to a man who never should have become president of the United States in the first place.”

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

That question – character vs. policy – has been one of the issues dominating news coverage of the just-concluded Democrat National Convention.

It is an important question for all of us who will vote this fall.

My view:  I will emphasize character every time.

For, if you, as a presidential candidate, lack character, that will influence every action you take on policy.  Meaning that actions will reflect selfishness and narcissism, not the good of the country.

To see the reality of self-dealing, look only so far as Donald Trump.

As he accepted the Democrat nomination for president, Joe Biden said this:

“The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger, too much fear, too much division.  Here and now, I give you my word:  If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness.”

Then to close his acceptance speech, Biden quoted a favorite Irish poet, Seamus Heaney:

“This is our moment to ‘make hope and history rhyme.’”

Now, in response to this enlightened view of the potential and possibilities of a united America, guess what Trump said?

“If you want a vision of your life under a Biden presidency, think of the smoldering ruins in Minneapolis, the violent anarchy of Portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago.  And imagine the mayhem coming to your town and every single town in America.”

No indication from Trump that he has any feeling or empathy for the plight of Black America.  To be sure, demonstrations in places like Chicago, Minneapolis and Portland have gone much too far as extremists use the venues to break law.  But the concerns of Black America are still worth considering, especially if, by position, you are a political leader.

Overall, Biden’s case to be president is as much about HOW he wants to govern as it is about WHAT he wants to accomplish.

Washington Post editorial writers put it this way:

“It is easier in today’s climate to play the zealot than to look for the best in one’s opponents.  Coalition-building wins few adherents on Twitter and rarely makes for exciting television.  But it gets things done.  And in contrast to Trump’s strategy to divide, deny and despoil, Biden’s invitation to all Americans to join in a more hopeful vision represents welcome and dramatic change.”

And, from Biden as he closed his acceptance speech:

“The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division.  Here and now, I give you my word — if you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness.  We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.”

As for me, that’s why I will choose character this fall.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline was similar to one the Washington Post ran this morning in an opinion piece by one of its writers, Dana Milbank.

It appeared on the occasion of the second day of a Democrat convention to nominate Joe Biden as its candidate for president.

Milbank is not one of my favorite commentators, but in this piece, he makes a number of good points about what is at stake in the fall presidential election.

So, the election is not just a contest between two differing personalities – Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s.

Would that that was the case because, if so, Biden would win in a landslide.

What’s more at stake in the very future of our nation, which to follow the image, has a soul – and that soul has been corrupted by Trump.  What is a soul?  Well, if you are a Christian, as I am, it is the base of who you are and, thus, is difficult to define.

So, then, what is the “soul of a nation?”  For this purpose, the dictionary defines the word soul as “emotional or intellectual energy or intensity.”  That would exactly what Trump lacks.

And it is exactly what Biden has, especially that he knows how to display empathy, if only because of the tragedies he has endured in his life, a fact which enables him to understand and express “empathy” for and about others.

From Milbank, regarding the second day of the virtual D convention:

• “Democrats from Maine to Guam, assembled virtually for their convention Tuesday night, spoke of a nation that has lost lives, jobs, fairness and friends because of President Trump’s leadership. But at core they were talking about a nation that has lost its soul.
• “’We are in a battle for the soul of our nation,’ Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried began in a keynote montage of elected officials from around the country.
• A young Naval Academy graduate and former Marine Corps officer, DeMarcus Gilliard, told he convention that “there is nothing more important for me right now than making sure that we restore the soul of our nation.”
• Colin Powell, the Republican former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, from Washington: “What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul.”
• And Jill Biden closed the night by saying that kindness and courage are “the soul of America Joe Biden is fighting for now.”

Of course, it could be said that Democrats didn’t have to convince anybody that the heart and soul of our Republic are on the ballot in November.  Trump had already done it for all of us when, earlier on Tuesday, he again reminded the country that he has little regard for democracy itself.

“It’ll end up being a rigged election,” he said from the White House, continuing his baseless campaign to discredit mail-in balloting during the pandemic. “Or they will never come out with an outcome.  They’ll have to do it again.”

Milbank wrote:  “A do-over! Trump supposes the election is like his golf game:  If he shanks one into the woods, he simply takes a mulligan and hits a new ball.”

I say that, if American democracy still has a pulse, voters will join the battle for our national soul and elect Biden as president.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama gave me a lot of reasons to vote for Joe Biden when she spoke yesterday at the Democrat National Convention, this time a video affair by remote control in the continuing coronavirus.

Through her great speech, Obama gave new and textured meaning to the phrase she invented several years ago – “we go high while they go low.”  She and Biden are high.  Trump is low.

Her address has sparked legions of positive comments, though, in fact, she mentioned Donald Trump by name only once.  Still, her meaning was crystal clear – don’t re-elect a jerk like Trump who cannot be trusted with nation’s future.

There is no better way to summarize Michelle Obama’s comments than to re-print excerpts from them.

**********

It’s a hard time, and everyone’s feeling it in different ways. And I know a lot of folks are reluctant to tune into a political convention right now or to politics in general.  Believe me, I get that.  But I am here tonight because I love this country with all my heart, and it pains me to see so many people hurting.

I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency.  And let me once again tell you this:  The job is hard.  It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.

A president’s words have the power to move markets.  They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts.  You simply cannot fake your way through this job.

Four years later, the state of this nation is very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. It has left millions of people jobless.

Too many have lost their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple with whether and how to open our schools safely.

Internationally, we’ve turned our back, not just on agreements forged by my husband, but on alliances championed by presidents like Reagan and Eisenhower.

And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.

Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.=

Empathy:  That’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition that someone else’s experience has value, too.  Most of us practice this without a second thought.  If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in judgment.  We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” I t is not a hard concept to grasp.  It’s what we teach our children.

…right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another.  They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.

They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.

They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists.  They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.

Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation. A nation that’s underperforming not simply on matters of policy but on matters of character. And that’s not just disappointing; it’s downright infuriating, because I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation.

And I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not right. This is not who we want to be.

But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.

And going high means unlocking the shackles of lies and mistrust with the only thing that can truly set us free:  The cold hard truth.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

…if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this:  If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

And if we want to keep the possibility of progress alive in our time, if we want to be able to look our children in the eye after this election, we have got to reassert our place in American history. And we have got to do everything we can to elect my friend, Joe Biden, as the next president of the United States.

Thank you all. God bless.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Think of the most outrageous things President Donald Trump could say or do – and make a list without looking up anything in media outlets from the last three years.  Just use your imagination.

Then consider this:  It is likely Trump has done most or all of that list, probably more.

In human terms, his behavior and talk are outrageous, denigrating everyone except himself, as would be the case with a narcissist, which he is.  In political terms, here’s hoping his conduct leads to his defeat this fall.

Washington Post columnist George Conway performed a public service this week when he wrote a column, with tongue firmly planted in-cheek, to list Trump’s egregious actions or comments.  Here’s a sampling:

• I believe it’s normal for the president to say “Yo Semites” and “Yo Seminites,” “Thigh Land,” “Minne–a–napolis,” “toe-tally-taria-tism,” “Thomas Jeffers” and “Ulyss-eus S. Grant.” I believe it’s Biden who’s cognitively impaired.
• I believe the president “aced” a “very hard” impairment test, and that his “very surprised” doctors found this “unbelievable.” I believe it was “amazing” he remembered five words, such as “person, woman, man, camera, TV” — in correct order.  I believe he took the SAT himself.”
• I believe the president has “a natural ability,” like his “great, super-genius uncle” from MIT, which is why he understands “that whole world” of virology and epidemiology.
• I believed the president in January and February when he said covid-19 was “totally under control,” that it was Democrats’ “new hoax,” and that he was “not at all” worried about a pandemic.
• I believe that the president’s suggestions that physicians should try injecting patients with household disinfectants, and that shining ultraviolet light inside their bodies, make perfect sense.
• I believe it isn’t racist to call the coronavirus “kung flu” or “the China Virus.” It isn’t racially divisive to say Black Lives Matter is a “symbol of hate,” to celebrate Confederate generals as part of our “Great American Heritage,” or to share video of someone shouting “white power,” which, like displaying the Confederate flag, is “freedom of speech.”
• I believe Rep. John Lewis made a “big mistake” not attending the president’s inauguration. I believe the president has done more for Blacks than any other president — perhaps even Abraham Lincoln, who “did good” although the “end result” was “questionable,” and certainly more than Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which hasn’t “worked out” so well.
• I believe the president should be added to Mount Rushmore, pronto.
• I believe the president won the popular vote in 2016 “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” I believe he shouldn’t accept the election results if he loses in November.

Now, from me.

Looking back on the last three-plus years, it is hard to remember all of the untruths Trump has uttered.  There have been so many.

One that bothered me more than almost anything else was when Trump berated U.S. military hero John McCain.  Trump criticized him before he passed and, after his death, continued denigrating him.

Incredible.

Now, Trump wants us to continue voting for him to be the leader of our country, if not the free world.

I say no.  Emphatically.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

There are at least three reasons for the commitment in the headline:

• In the Wall Street Journal, I get a center-right perspective on the days’ news, especially in politics.
• In the Washington Post, I get a center-left perspective.
• And, in both, I get solid journalism.

Nowhere was this comparison more evident than this morning when both outlets commented on Senator Kamala Harris as the choice running mate for Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Here are excerpts:

FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL

“In choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, Joe Biden checked the essential boxes his party had demanded—a woman, a minority, and a progressive who has moved left as the Democratic Party has. We’ll see how the California Senator plays in the swing-state suburbs that Biden needs to defeat President Trump.

“Biden’s choice is especially important because he would be the oldest President on Inauguration Day at age 78.  The actuarial tables and his declining mental acuity suggest he wouldn’t run for re-election, assuming he lasts a full term.  Americans who have watched Biden on the campaign trail—and the way his advisers protect him from media questioning—are smart enough to know that in voting for Biden they’re also voting for his running mate as a likely President.

“Harris is most appealing as an example of American upward mobility, especially for immigrants. Her father is a Jamaican-born Stanford economist. Her Indian-born mother was a breast cancer researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Biden may have backed himself into the corner of having to choose Harris.  He limited his choices by promising to select a woman, and the black Democrats who saved him in South Carolina pressed for a black woman.  Then the Sanders wing pressed for a progressive, and Ms. Harris is a safer choice by far than Elizabeth Warren.

“In this sense the choice is revealing about the unusual nature of Biden’s candidacy. He won the nomination as the last-ditch, anti-Trump alternative to what would have been the suicidal selection of Bernie Sanders. More than any recent nominee, Biden is a party figurehead, more than a party leader.  In adding Harris to the ticket, he has underscored that a vote for Biden isn’t merely a vote to oust Trump. It’s a vote for the coastal progressives who now dominate the Democratic Party.”

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

“From the moment former vice president Joe Biden became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, one qualification has loomed as most important for his running mate: that she or he be prepared to serve as president. Senator Kamala Harris, the California Democrat whom Biden announced Tuesday as his selection, meets that test.

“Of course, in theory, that should always be the primary consideration for a vice president.  Too often, though, candidates have been more influenced by electoral college arithmetic.  There’s good reason to think that Harris, a gifted politician, can help lift the ticket, but California is not a state where Biden needs help.

“At 78, though, he would be far and away the oldest person to be sworn in as president, and demographic reality dictated a choice of someone who could plausibly step in.

“Harris is such a person.  She has been elected statewide three times in the nation’s most populous state.  As California attorney general, running what amounts to a parallel Justice Department, she earned executive experience and respect for her savvy and administrative skill.  As senator, she gained Washington experience.  And as presidential candidate last year and this, she faced the pressures of the campaign trail and the debate stage.

“It is a plus for the nation that the qualified person whom Biden settled on, after a fairly lengthy process, is also a woman, as he had promised, and a woman of color, the daughter of a mother from India and a father from Jamaica. Identifying as an African American, she would be the first woman and the first Black woman to serve as president or vice president. It is about time.

“Running to replace a president who has celebrated incompetence and elevated incompetents, Biden needed to choose a running mate who respects public service and has served well. I n Harris, he has found such a partner.”

See!  That’s why I read both.

And, my view?  With these editorials in mind, it is that Harris was not safest or conventional choice – she was the best choice.  And I hope she helps Biden do what he must do for the future of the country – beat the worst U.S. president in history, Donald Trump.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

[Note:  This a going to be as lengthy blog because, given current event, the subject deserves full exploration.]

 To state the obvious, I am not sitting at the negotiating table as Members of Congress and the Trump Administration try to hammer out a deal on the next of virus relief, if, in fact, they are still negotiating.

I write the word “try.”

Because they have failed.

So, Trump has signed executive orders extending unemployment benefits, stalling evictions and, on top of both, stopping payroll taxes from being placed on employees.  All of the actions may not be legal.

Perhaps taking unilateral executive action was what he wanted to do all along so he could try to get credit.  He wasn’t at the negotiating table, leaving the task to his staff.  And there is little doubt but that he will turn a deaf ear to pleas from organizations such as the Washington Post to avoid just settling for his executive actions.

Who knows what will happen next, even as the Post’s economic columnist Robert Samuelson says, “admit it, we are in a pandemic depression?”

At the same time and over time, Trump has depicted himself as a supreme negotiator, which, in his lexicon, if he has one, is that he always gets his way in what he calls “the art of the deal.”

Given the public policy negotiations I went through during my experience in and around Oregon state government for more than 40 years – including, for example, when I spoke for state management during two state employee strikes – several key credentials in negotiating stand out to me.  I list them in this blog.

First, however, I asked a business consultant friend of mine about the principles he would advise in negotiations.  On the fly one morning, he provided this solid list:

• A WILLINGNESS to reach a decision that satisfies both your needs AND the needs of the other party. Call it a compromise.
• SEEK TO UNDERSTAND the real needs of the other party.
• LETTING GO – are you willing to create the negotiating “starting point” with the other party without just asserting your own perspective above all else?
• ESTABLISH COMMON GROUND early so you can focus on areas of disagreement.
• EXHIBIT AUTHENTICITY – be willing to back up and admit uncertainties over arguments you may not understand.
• PROVIDE THE “WHY” OF YOUR PERSPECTIVE, NOT JUST THE “WHAT”
• BE READY TO DISAGREE without putting the other side down.

To this, I would add:

• Bring credible relationships to negotiations, which assumes you have such relationships.
• Operate with an ethic that “your word is your bond,” and, during negotiations, because you no doubt will have to change your position, take initiative to explain that change because doing so will add to your credibility.
• If winning is setting out to denigrate the other side, then that is not real negotiating.
  
• Giving and getting is part of the process, so work hard to find what I call the “smart middle,” which means be open to compromise.

Let me cite just one example of how negotiations worked well in my past service as a lobbyist.

In 1997, voters passed an initiative at the polls, making Oregon the first state in the country to allow assisted suicide.  That was a problem for my firm’s client, Providence Health & Services, the state’s largest health care provider which was affiliated with the Catholic Church.

As Providence’s lobbyist, following up on instructions from my client, I set out to advocate for a “conscience clause” to enable Providence to avoid having to engage in a practice it considered unethical.

That set up a negotiation over such a clause with various interests at the table, including me for Providence and a representative of Oregon Right to Die, the prime advocate for assisted suicide.

Through often intense negotiations, Providence and other religiously-affiliated organizations won the right to prevent assisted suicide from being performed (1) on their grounds, (2) by their employees or (3) by contractors within the course and scope of their contracts.

In return, Providence had to agree to refer patients who wanted assisted suicide services out to an accredited provider.  I put the word “refer” in bold fafce because it was a deal that went down hard.

To a Catholic, “agentry” (in this case, referral) is just as bad as the deed itself.  So, the Catholic Conference opposed the compromise.  Providence, as a health care system affiliated with, but not owned by, the Catholic Church advocated for the deal, and it was approved.

The result was a solid negotiation that produced an agreement no one viewed as perfect, but which was an acceptable addition to Oregon law.

One hopes parties in the Nation’s Capitol would find the same kind of wherewithal as they deal with the pandemic crisis.

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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Given my background in journalism, I always have been a person who wanted to get his hands dirty reading a real newspaper.

But in the last few years, something has happened.

I have taken to reading newspapers on-line. 

An incredible change for me, one I never would have predicted years ago with ink-stained hands.

Why the change?

It’s easy to read newspapers on line –= newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and, yes, even the Oregonian, now only a faint example of its stronger past.

To this, I add that I read Oregon Public Broadcasting and Salem Reporter news on-line because both offer quality journalism.

All of this just indicates, I guess, that, as you age, stuff changes.