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.

Is the fact that Joe Biden suffers from stuttering enough reason to vote for him for president?

Probably not in and of itself, but the fact that he has readily admitted his speech problem, as well as developed a way to surmount it, does indicate something of his real character.

And, for me, this reality provides another reason to vote for Biden.

Stuttering is a speech malady that affects millions of Americans. It is difficult to conquer. Plus, especially in today’s ridicule-dominated society, those who stutter can be subjected to taunts and derision.

Biden’s stutter still sometimes affects his speech and, in some quarters, has given rise to the notion that he lacks the mental chops to be president.

The fact is that his stutter can, at times, obscure what he intends to say – or at least how he says it. But it cannot be left to obscure the quality of his life, the contributions he has made to public service, and his example of empathy in life.

Why does all of this matter to me?

Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have been one of those who has suffered from stuttering. It developed in my childhood and, while I have not had professional help to conquer it, I have managed to do so on my own, which is not to suggest that I deserve any huge dose of personal credit for the achievement.

I just managed to find a way around it, so much so that, in a series of strange twists, I spent much of my professional career speaking in public or before television cameras.

So, with that context, I appreciate the commitment of Biden to surmount a problem and serve a long political career that involved a lot of public speaking, despite his speech malady.

To me, his achievement – also his willingness to assume a public position (admitting his stutter) that he could have avoided – is another sign of his decency.

And, what about that young man, Brayden Harrington, who spoke for Biden at the Democrat Convention…with his stutter?

“Twenty seconds into his speech, Brayden Harrington started to stutter.

“He knew he would — it was the reason the 13-year-old was addressing millions of viewers from his bedroom. As he had explained to kick off his speech, his life had changed after meeting former vice president Joe Biden in February.

“He told me that we were members of the same club. We … ” Brayden said, shutting his eyes as he drew out an “s” sound, willing the word to emerge: “… stutter.

“And then, he kept going — smiling, poised, and delivering a powerful message about how Biden had inspired him to reach higher.”

In the Washington Post, commentator Michael Gerson, though he was not writing about stuttering, put it this way about Biden:

“The former vice president delivered a sober, direct, large-hearted and aspirational speech (in the Democrat National Convention) in which nearly every word was an implied rebuke to President Trump’s paranoid style of politics.  In 25 well-crafted minutes, Biden managed to capture the romance of decency.”

Back to stuttering. Atlantic Magazine writer, John Hendrickson, wrote a long piece about what he labeled “The Biden Talk.” And, to add reality to his piece, Hendrickson said that he, too, stutters.

As Hendrickson put it in the lead for his story:

“His (Biden’s) verbal stumbles have voters worried about his mental fitness. Maybe they’d be more understanding if they knew he’s still fighting a stutter

“His eyes fall to the floor when I ask him to describe it. We’ve been tiptoeing toward it for 45 minutes, and so far, every time he seems close, he backs away, or leads us in a new direction. There are competing theories in the press, but Joe Biden has kept mum on the subject. I want to hear him explain it. I ask him to walk me through the night he appeared to lose control of his words onstage.

“’I—um—I don’t remember,’ Biden says. His voice has that familiar shake, the creak and the croak. ‘I’d have to see it. I-I-I don’t remember.’”

So, all of this is another reason for my vote for Biden this fall.