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.

As someone who has followed politics for years, I try to focus on the substance of the news coverage. 

Not just who won or lost.  But WHY someone won or lost.

But, every once in awhile, some commentator writes a line that resonates. 

Such was the case yesterday when important words appeared in the Washington Post as a writer focused on Donald Trump’s failure to capture as much political momentum as he thought he deserved (of course, as the epitome of the narcissist, he always thinks he deserves everything):

The Post quote:

“Besides, we’re not out of the woods yet.  Trump is almost certainly going to run for president again, and then we’ll see just how many Republicans are willing to join the former president on his own personal Titanicand go chasing more icebergs.”

“How many Republicans are willing to join the former president on his own personal Titanicand go chasing more icebergs?”

How’s that for a person – me – who like literal more than imagery!