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.

Daniel Henninger says election results in the country yesterday illustrate at least one thing:  Voters are tiring of the far left and are heading back to the right.

So, who is Daniel Henninger?

He is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and also serves as deputy editor of the Journal’s editorial page.

I like the way he writes, but, in this case and some others, Henninger comes too quick to easy conclusions.  He contends Democrats are doomed and Republicans are on the rise.  But his conclusion is based essentially on what happened in two states on the East Coast – Virginia and New Jersey. 

For me, no nationwide thrust there.

Henninger is not alone in trying to come up with election conclusions only a day or so after the results.

This from the lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which I guess Henninger could have written:

“Democrats were reeling Wednesday from an election that repudiated the progressive agenda nationwide.  They now have a chance to pull out of their tailspin to avert another disaster in 2022, but the early response suggests they might prefer another crash landing.”

Democrats are not known as an organized political party, so it would not be surprising to see them produce “another crash landing.”  But, before pronouncing that as inevitable, better to provide some time for reflection.

One-day-after conclusions are too much and too quick for me.  Without suggesting that I am the equal of Henninger and his prognosticating colleagues, I prefer to let the dust settle just a bit.

Here’s why.

• I hope the Democrats will take stock of what happened in the two states and decide what it means for the next round of elections, the mid-terms.  But I will give them a few weeks to assess results instead of reacting after only a few hours.
• I hope the Republicans will do the same.
• I hope Henninger is right when he posits that far left – those on the left like to call themselves “progressive,” but I dislike the term because they don’t often support what it means to “progress “– lost ground this week.  It could only be the start of a shift away from looney ideas of the sort promoted by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The headline on Henninger’s piece was this:  “The progressives’ disastrous overreach fosters an emerging Republican coalition.”

Well, to use a hackneyed phrase, only time will tell.

• I hope one Donald Trump gains no solace from the election.  Here’s how hill.com described the way Republican Glen Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia.  “The blueprint doesn’t require repudiating the former president — but it doesn’t require kissing Trump’s ring, either.”
• I reason that election results on the East Coast don’t say much about what will happen in Oregon.  Here, Democrats control the political agenda, the Oregon Legislature and all statewide elected offices.  They are likely to retain that control.

How about this from polly-anna, me? 

Why not consider election results as a call to move toward the center?  Why not ask Democrats to discard their usual instincts for more government?  Why not ask Republicans to arrive at decisions about what might help their constituents, instead of just coming with more “no” answers?

And, why not hope Americans – yes, Americans who vote – will support candidates who hew toward the center where the best solutions lie and not the extremes of the far right or the far left?

Too much to ask?  Probably.  But I hold out hope anyway.