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 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.

Every day, we learn more about the papers Donald Trump took from the White House.  Papers, many of which, were labeled “classified” and which, in a few cases, involved sensitive nuclear war information.

Is Trump guilty of being stupid or pilfering sensitive information for his own gain?

Both.

And, Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, writes about the situation this way:

“In a complicated case like that of Donald Trump’s pilfering of government documents, instead of learning everything all at once, we get information piecemeal.  When the Justice Department makes a filing or the judge releases a document, the picture gets a little more focused.  Every time, Trump’s defenders fervently hope this new development will demonstrate his innocence.

“And every time, the opposite happens.  The more we learn, the more guilty Trump looks.”

Then, Waldman hits the nail on the head.

“Hovering behind this controversy is the frightening possibility that Trump could become president again.  Just this Thursday he promised ‘full pardons with an apology to many’ for January 6 rioters.  If he’s eager to pardon perpetrators of a violent insurrection against the American government, what else might he have in store?  How would he treat sensitive national security information in a second term?  The very thought ought to make you shudder.”

And, shudder is what I am doing even as I write this.