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.

Remember, this is one of three departments I run with full and complete authority to manage as I see fit.

Since I created the departments, I can give myself all the freedom I need.

The other departments are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of “Just Saying.”

This time, I almost created a fourth department, one called the Department of the Best Lines in Political Analyses.  But I demurred.

Still, I like when political analysts write good words that prompt you to think and consider.

MICHELLE COTTLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:  Such was the case when the member of NY Times Editorial Board wrote this:

“In the high-stakes fight for control of the Senate, Pennsylvania was a hot spot, widely considered the Democrats’ best opportunity to flip a Republican-held seat and, by extension, a must-hold for the G.O.P.  Dr. Oz’s high-profile flop was a particularly painful one for Trump’s party.

“But there’s more:  The Democrats scored a huge win in the governor’s race as well, where Josh Shapiro had the good fortune of running against Doug Mastriano, a Trump-endorsed MAGA extremist so unsettling you have to wonder if he is secretly related to Marjorie Taylor-Greene.”

COMMENT:  The great line is the last one in what Cottle wrote.  “Doug Mastriano, a Trump-endorsed MAGA extremist so unsettling you have to wonder if he is secretly related to Marjorie Taylor-Greene.”

In this line, Cottle manages artfully to skewer two political wing nuts – Mastriano and Taylor-Greene – in only a few words.

GREG SARGENT IN THE WASHINGTON POST:  If you are thinking about lost causes, he writes, how about this one?

“With Democrats on the cusp of keeping the Senate even ascontrol of the House remains up for grabs, Republicans are escalating efforts to blame Donald Trump for themid-term debacle.  Everyone from rising stars in the party to right-wing media personalities are hammering Trump, with some demanding that he delay plans to announce a 2024 presidential run next week (this week).

“In a way, this represents an effort to get Trump himself to accept blame.  If Trump were to act chastened or delay his announcement, it would constitute public acceptance of the verdict that the MAGA movement’s influence was largely responsible for the GOP’s underperformance.

“Good luck with that.

“The most obvious problem is that Trump will never admit that he and MAGA failed in any way.  MAGA can only be failed, as Trump demonstrated when he declared Thursday that he had played his own role perfectly throughout the midterms, while simultaneously disavowing any responsibility in the actual outcome.”

COMMENT:  And, in an even more stupid act, Trump blamed his wife Melania for Trump’s decision to support Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

The epitome of the lost cause:  Getting Trump to take responsibility for anything.

FRANK BRUNI IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:  As this long-time analyst politics wondered about whether Joe Biden would run again in 2024, he raised questions about other contenders, as in the following:

“Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who just won re-election by an impressive margin in the key presidential battleground of Michigan, is Pabst Blue Ribbon with just the right measure of merlot.  She ‘thinks like a general, looks like a ’40s film star, and talks like she’s ice fishing for muskie,’ Sarah Vowell wrote in The Times in August 2020.  Vowell grouped Whitmer with Biden and several other nationally prominent politicians who, unlike every president since Jimmy Carter, graduated from public universities (in Whitmer’s case, Michigan State, both college and law school).  She’s also the subject of an adoring song by the Detroit rapper GmacCash, ‘Big Gretch.’  The nickname took, and it’s gold.”

Bruni explained the beer and wine reference.  He said the person who came up with it likes to categorize Democrat candidates as “wine track” (Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats favored by voters with more education and money) or “beer track” (politicians, like Bernie Sanders, who are most ardently backed by a less affluent group).

Without necessarily endorsing the “wine-beer” analogy, though I do like it:

• I’ll take columnists who put words together well, producing lines that last longer than reading them.
• I’ll take candidates, whatever the party, who put America’s interests higher than their own.

GEORGE CONWAY IN THE WASHINGTON POST:  Conway continues his ability to skewer Trump and he succeeds again by a Republican political operative thusly:

“One Republican pollster taxonomizes the party thusly:  Ten percent are ‘Never Trumpers,’ who have long despised Trump. (This might be high, because of people like me who re-registered as independents to escape the cult.)  As many as 50 per cent could be considered ‘Maybe Trumpers,’ Republicans who voted for Trump twice, but are exhausted by him and would love to support someone else.  That leaves 40 per cent, the ‘Always Trumpers’ — the cultish voters who will never abandon him, even if he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue, or at the Capitol, or anywhere else.”

COMMENT:  We’ll see which group thrives in the aftermath of Trump’s no-surprise announcement yesterday – he is running again.

Count me in the “Never Trumpers” category, or even more if there was more.