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 am not looking forward to the 2024 presidential election if it turns out that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are running against each other.

It will not a rewarding election.

Of course, given my antipathy for Trump, I would vote for Biden.

But, his age – he would be 82 at the time of the election and, if he wins, serve until he is 86 – would make him the oldest president in our history.  It will be a major issue in the election and Biden knows it.  As does Trump, though, if he mentions age, it would apply to him, as well.

Age should not be an automatic disqualification, but it is, for me, a factor.

I hope, if he wins, Biden is up to four more years in the nation’s highest political office, one with huge international relations obligations, not to mention a host of troubling issues at home.

Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post wrote about this:

“I hate saying this, but Biden is too old to serve another four years, not least because, should he become debilitated by illness or injury, we’ll be saddled with one of the least-popular Democrat candidates from the 2020 primary campaign:  Vice President Harris. Her word salads make Biden seem like Demosthenes.  Ninety percent of the time, I have no idea what she’s talking about. Or why she’s laughing.”

I could say similar stuff about Trump.  When he speaks, he cannot put a string of words together.  Plus, if he managed to achieve that standard, none of those words would be true.

In the Wall Street Journal, essayist Joseph Epstein dealt with all this when he wrote a piece under this headline:  America Hits Bottom With Trump and Biden in 2024:  There was once a time when candidates for high office were expected at least to seem morally fit.

Here is how Epstein started his column:

““Forgive my repetitiousness, but how did it happen that what happened is happening?  How has it come about that the more-than-likely presidential candidates of our two political parties in 2024 turn out to be Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

“One can of course be a good man and a poor president.  Jimmy Carter, take a bow.  But no one would argue that either Trump or Biden is a notably good man.  [I differ here because I think Biden is basically a good man, though one who has, like all of us, made mistakes along the way.]

“Both have been accused of poor personal behavior.  Each has been ethically challenged and found wanting:  Trump by his long experience in the New York real-estate world, Biden by his 36 years in the Senate.

“Neither man has been touched by a scintilla of culture.  It’s difficult to imagine either ever having read a serious book, sat through a classical music concert, or strolled through an art museum.  Charm is far from the long suit of either man.  Neither is even especially likable.”

Again, Epstein goes farther than I would in criticizing Biden, but he also makes this point:  In various polls, Americans have expressed concern about the advanced ages of both men; and in Biden’s case, this concern is aggravated by many of his current performances.

Epstein ends his column – or is it a “rant” – by writing this:  “A forthcoming presidential election between these two men would only seem to prove the sad wisdom of Joseph de Maistre, who wrote that ‘every country gets the government it deserves.’”

Perhaps.

But the election is still a long way off, so I hope someone emerges who can capture the balance between electability and character.

As Americans, we deserve at least that.