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 could open this department every day, given all the good quotes that appear in at least three places – the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Atlantic Magazine.

As director of the department, I have the ability to open or stay closed.

For today, here are new quotes worth remembering.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: “Audiences hold their breath whenever Biden speaks. ‘I want to thank the prime minister for Colombia’s leadership,’ he said last week in Cambodia.  Days earlier he mentioned Russian forces ‘pulling back from Fallujah,’ which was a flashback to the Iraq war.  Last month he said Democrats campaigning during 2018 ‘went to 54 states’ — which is two more states than even progressives want to create.”

COMMENT:  My point is not to pick on the president because I admire his decency, especially in relation to one Donald Trump.  But, at age 80, Biden should consider retiring at the end of his current term.  Enable other Democrat leaders to take up the mantle and retire into being a statesman.

He has had a penchant for gaffes over the years, but the examples cited above are not “gaffes.”  They are one mark of an old person, like me, who sometimes forgets the words he/she wants to use.

My point about Biden’s is not meant as age description.  It’s just that, as president, we need someone who is able to cope with the huge strenuous demands of the job.

MORE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  A piece by Joe Lonsdale and Judge Glock, two officials from the Cicero Institute, says this:

“Five days before winning re-election as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom surprised local leaders by rejecting every single plan put forward by a city, county, or organization to fight homelessness — and withholding $1 billion in state money until those plans improve.  He said he’d convene a meeting this month to discuss what really works.  He should start with what doesn’t work: everything California has done for years.

“Residents have known for years what Newsom has only belatedly recognized:  That the government is failing to address the problem. Homelessness is a nationwide problem, but nowhere is it as bad as in the Golden State.  More than 150,000 Californians are homeless on any given night. Most of those — about 70 per cent — are unsheltered.  They live outside in streets and parks.  Despite billions in state and local spending every year, more than half of the country’s unsheltered homeless are in California.

“California’s failed approach to homelessness is built around the ‘housing first’ model.  The goal is to get every long-term homeless person into a permanent, government-subsidized home — with no pre-qualifications like sobriety, drug treatment or psychiatric care.  Until that goal is reached, the state will allow people to camp and sleep almost anywhere and to do almost anything.

“Unless Newsom is willing to get serious about confronting the underlying ideological problems with his state’s homeless policy, all his recent promises are just talk.  Instead of spending billions on dubious housing programs, he should make sure immediate shelters are available for those who need them.  He should tie new long-term housing to mandatory drug, alcohol and mental-health treatment.  And he should take action against dangerous, unsanctioned public camping.

COMMENT:  Political leaders in Oregon – especially in Portland – should note this column.  To this point, they have made some of same mistakes California has made. 

FROM PEGGY NOONAN IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “Chris Christie got a standing ovation from the Republican Governors’ Association this week after delivering fiery words that captured the inner views of audience members, including GOP officeholders from 50 states, donors, party figures and operatives.  The former New Jersey governor told them voters in the mid-terms ‘rejected crazy.’

“Christie said the midterms were an actual change point in the history of the party:  That its central struggle can no longer be avoided.  That struggle is how and why to put Trump in the rearview mirror.

“It can’t be dodged and can no longer be the problem that dare not speak its name:  ‘We can’t lead and convince Trump folks if we’re unwilling to stick our necks out and say his name.’ Over the next 18 months, leaders will have to take a side and go to Trump supporters to make the case against him.  ‘There needs to be a fight out loud, in public. The only way it becomes a winning argument is transparent and public.’

“The strongest argument: Mr. Trump can’t win, and if you truly seek to win you must disengage from him.

“’This is a baseball country,’ Christie said.  ‘It’s always three strikes and you’re out.’  Trump struck out in 2018, 2020 and 2022.  He never came close to a plurality of the popular vote.”

COMMENT:  Yes, Republicans should dump Trump and move on – to “whatever,” which will be better than Trump.  As Noonan advocates, it is time for Republicans to have the dump Trump debate.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “Your editorial lists several of Trump’s character flaws —’narcissism, lack of self-control, abusive treatment of advisers, his puerile vendettas’ — but missed one.  Consider mural dyslexia, the seeming inability to read the writing on the wall.

COMMENT:  Well said.  Trump only reads what HE writes.