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 little question but that the answer to the question above is this:  Trump favors celebrity over credentials.

After all, this is what he is, too.  As a narcissist, he looks on himself as the epitome of everything, a so-called “celebrity” who knows all and says all.

But recent election results last showed that just being supported by Trump isn’t always enough for various candidates to win. 

I’ll leave the punditry to those who get paid to write, but I will say this:  I hope Trump continues to recede from the limelight he so craves as other Republicans try to find way to compete for the presidency two years from now.

This perception about Trump – celebrity over credentials – was reinforced for me when I read a piece by Michelle Cottle, a member of the editorial board of the New York Times.

Here is a summary of what she wrote:

“For Trump, the perfect political candidate is one who has no strongly held views of his own.  Whether candidates are in touch with the needs and values of their constituencies is of no interest — and could, in fact, be an inconvenience. 

“Trump clearly prefers a nationalized Republican Party populated by minions willing to blindly follow orders in his unholy crusade for political restoration and vengeance.

“’When you’re a star, they let you do it,’ Trump once vilely bragged of his penchant for groping women. ‘You can do anything.’”

This time around one of the candidates Trump is promoting is Mehmet Oz, a doctor who made his mark by being on TV with so-called cures for everything.  As I write this, it is not yet clear that he has won his race.

“His show is great,” Trump says.  “He’s on that screen.  He’s in the bedrooms of all those women telling them good and bad.  Dr. Oz has had an enormously successful career on TV, and now he’s running to save our country.”

Cottle adds this:

“As political pitches go, this one may sound vague and vacuous and more than a tad creepy.  But Trump was simply cutting to the heart of the matter. Dr. Oz’s chief political asset — arguably his singular asset in this race — is his celebrity.  Beyond that, it is hard to imagine why anyone would consider him for the job, much less take him seriously.”

Beyond Oz, two other candidates opposed by Trump – Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – prevailed in high-profile races in Georgia.  Both results help to support the notion that Trump endorsement is not the way to victory.

So, why should any of us take Trump seriously?  He has mostly act like a clown, both in and out of political office.  He doesn’t deserve one iota of support.  I say keep and his ilk out of anything in the public domain.