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 is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Consider this headline.

What would America be like if Joe Biden wins and Donald Trump loses?  Not perfect, of course, because no presidential administration ever is.  But, if only because of the qualities of Biden, we could return to a time when character mattered in the Oval Office.

With Trump, solid character is off the table.  So, we are left debating his egomania and his incessant tweets.  I say stop.

In a column in the Washington Post this morning, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt asked and answered the question.

“For the past three-plus years, the country has lived — and suffered — in Donald Trump’s America,” he wrote.

“With President Joe Biden, America would be starkly different.  To begin with, it would not be Joe Biden’s America, which in itself says something significant about the difference.

“The nation would return to a time when most Americans were not forced daily to contemplate the president’s latest provocation, government officials would be picked based on competence and commitment to service, not their capability to play the sycophant, and the president would judge his success based on legislative accomplishments rather than TV ratings.

“This is not to say that Biden would be a mere throwback to the years of President Barack Obama, or before, but that he would muster democratic norms and values to face an uncertain and dangerous future.”

Just think of it for a moment.  Without Trump and the Republicans who simply abet him, we could focus on crafting policies that make America better at home and around the world.