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.