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.

There is an old saw in the lobby game that says what this blog headline touts — “if something good happens, take credit for it.”

An overstatement, no doubt, but there is a case to be made for the words because if the reverse is true – something bad happens – you get credit, read debit, for that, too.

So, it is that I read the following paragraphs in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

“WASHINGTON—President Biden walked back comments tying the fate of a roughly $1 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure agreement to a separate, Democrat effort to pass a broad anti-poverty plan, recommitting to the bi-partisan deal after Republicans threatened to withdraw their support.

“Biden said Saturday that his earlier comments ‘created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat’ on his proposal, ‘which was certainly not my intent.’

“The bottom line is this: ‘ I gave my word to support the infrastructure plan, and that’s what I intend to do.  I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigor,’ he said in a statement.  Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Tuesday to discuss the merits of the agreement, according to a White House official.”

Now, no doubt it was my blog yesterday that prompted the new Biden position.  My words were, of course, compelling.

In yesterday’s blog, I used this quote from the Wall Street Journal:

“Politicians in Washington renege on their bi-partisan promises all the time, but what are we to make of a deal in which one side admits it is pulling a bait and switch from the start?

“That was the astonishing news Thursday as President Biden and Speaker Pelosi endorsed a bi-partisan Senate infrastructure deal even as they said the price of their support is getting the rest of their agenda, too.”

With Biden’s new position – he reiterated his support for infrastructure deal without conditions – there is little doubt but that I should get credit for the emerging bi-partisan deal.

Okay.  Just let me have my few moments of glory.