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.

The pandemic is top-of-mind for almost all of us as the rate of the virus reaches new heights.

No big news here…just a slew of perceptions accumulated in my mind as I had nothing much else to do while driving from Salem, Oregon to La Quinta, California.

PUBLICITY WHERE NONE IS DUE:  Former state legislator Tootie Smith, a Republican legislator from Clackamas and incoming Clackamas Commission chair, made news a day or so ago – news she probably wanted to make.

Here is how the Oregonian newspaper reported the story:

“In defiance of governor’s orders, one of Clackamas County’s top elected officials plans to host a large dinner in her Molalla area home on Thanksgiving despite the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tootie Smith, who will start her term as chairwoman of the Clackamas Board of County Commissioners in January, posted the following to Facebook Saturday:  ‘My family will celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with as many family and friends as I can find. Governor Brown is wrong to order otherwise.’”

She even upped the ante yesterday by going on national TV to herald her opposition.

Now, let it be said that I know Smith, having lobbied her at the Capitol in Salem over the years.  She was always a bit of a loose cannon and she is up to it again.  If you are going to defy a gubernatorial order, why not, as Nike would say, “just do it’ instead of trying to get publicity for it?

DOWN HERE IN LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA:  We got down to Southern California a couple days ago and wondered whether new pandemic control mechanisms would be the same here as up in Oregon.

Looks similar, but not identical, though it’s too early to make generalizations.

At the golf course where I play, for example, those who show up at the Clubhouse wear masks, but, while playing, masks are not required – and that is similar to what occurs in Oregon.

The Clubhouse is open for breakfast, lunch and drinks, but only if consumed outside.  Similar to Oregon.

Beyond golf, no firm perceptions yet, though restaurants are open at least for takeout and, at least to a degree, to outside seating, though that is clearly more likely here with temperatures hovering in the 70s and 80s.

AMAZON TRUCKS BY THE DOZENS:  This may not be just pandemic related, but I suspect it is, in a way.  The “this” is the fact that, while driving south over two days, we saw large numbers of Amazon trucks plying the highway going both north and south.

Americans increasingly want “stuff” to delivered to their homes, which now is more prevalent in the pandemic, but which might occur to a degree anyway.

Just think about it for a moment – you can get almost anything you want from Amazon (including prescriptions soon) and it will be at your house in a day or so after you place your order. That means, of course, that goods have to be transferred from one place to another very quickly – and that means lots of trucks.  Airplanes, too.

It would be fascinating to go behind the scenes and watch how the phone-in orders are translated into delivery.  Fascinating.  But I won’t do it.  Too busy. 

AND, AS FOR BIDEN:  New reports say that President-Elect Joe Biden is taking a mostly cautious approach on his unofficial leading role in the pandemic response, at least a lead role that will be confirmed when he is inaugurated in January.

For now, he has appointed a science panel to advise him on virus issues and has been very pointed in his criticism of Trump, saying that his failure to concede, including by not providing extensive and detailed “pandemic transition briefings,” risks American lives.

If that is true, no surprise, because, for Trump, everything always is about him, not the good of the country.

Oh yeah, I remember that I pledged not to write about Trump anymore now that he is a loser.  Oh well, a pledge broken.