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.

I have often said that, in retirement, I have a lot of time on my hands. 

Which is why I use some of that time to play golf or volunteer at golf tournaments around the Northwest.

It’s also why I have time every day to read the Oregonian newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.  I am a newspaper junkie.

There, I run across strange comparisons.

One occurred this morning.

It arose in a column by David Von Drehle in the Washington Post and a story by Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post.

Here it is:

FROM VON DREHLE:  “Sooner or later, the leader makes a truly bad decision that springs reality from the prison of lies.  For Vladmir Putin, that bad decision is the invasion of Ukraine.  

“All of Russia is not as stupid as this decision would suggest — but the Russians who correctly perceived the patriotism of the Ukrainian people had no way to warn Putin.  The Russians who knew about the weakness of their army had no avenue to inform Putin.  The Russians who understood the latent strength of the West weren’t welcome around Putin.  The Russians familiar with the unpreparedness of the civilian reserves weren’t consulted by Putin.  All the leader heard was the groveling echo of his own misconceptions.

“That Putin is now blaming the sycophants he created for failing to bend reality to match his delusions was predictable.  One must be alert when walking in Moscow these days, given the hazard of plunging bureaucrats tossed from windows and chucked down stairways.”

FROM DAWSEY:  “As president, Donald Trump weighed bombing drug labs in Mexico after one of his leading public health officials came into the Oval Office, wearing a dress uniform, and said such facilities should be handled by putting “lead to target” to stop the flow of illicit substances across the border into the United States.

“He raised it several times, eventually asking a stunned Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the United States could indeed bomb the labs,” according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. White House officials said the official, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, often wore his dress uniform for meetings with Trump, which confused him.

“The response from White House aides was not to try to change Trump’s view, but to consider asking Giroir not to wear his uniform to the Oval Office anymore,” Haberman writes in “Confidence Man,” an extensive book about Trump’s time in New York and as president.

“The 607-page book, which has long been awaited by many of Trump’s aides, is set to be published Tuesday.  A copy was obtained by The Washington Post.  The book details unusual and erratic interactions between Trump and world leaders, members of Congress and his own aides, along with behind-the-scenes accounts of his time as a businessman.”

Why did this comparison cross my mind?

At least a couple reasons.

1. Trump admires Putin and his ability to rise above any advice to do only what he wants to do at all times.  Thus, invading Ukraine. 
2. Like Putin, Trump was his own person in office, never accepting advice or counsel from anyone other than sycophants, like Giroir, who wanted only to please Trump.

Trump was in his cloister.  Apart from rational discussion about any public policy.  If he thought it and if he said, then it was right no matter countervailing evidence.

The fact that Trump hated to read anything, including the daily intelligence brief created for all presidents, only made his independence more dangerous.

And that’s exactly what we don’t need in the Oval Office – another term for Trump, the epitome of a narcissist.