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.

1.

Well, as I write this – the final chapter in my countdown to a Biden presidency, the number 1 is not right.

As I sit at my laptop, the number is more like about four hours.

Donald Trump already has left the presidential stage as he lurks down to Florida, not without having a military send-off at Andrews Air Force Base where he took his last ride as president on Marine One, the presidential helicopter, and then boarded Air Force One for a last flight.

I say good riddance, though I know Trump and his acolytes will not just go away as of today.

It’s time for a Biden Administration, one with which I will not always agree, but so what.  That’s the nature of genuine political discourse in this country and I hope today, with only hours left to the 9 a.m. inauguration, can mark a return to good government, premised on facts and honesty, not lies.