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.

President Joe Biden is known these days for his advanced age, for the gaffes he continues to produce, and for the criminal trials of his son.

But, for those who are paying attention, there are solid economic results all around.  And, some of them are due to Biden and his Administration.

I wish Americans – me included – would know more about the good news of what has come to be called “Bidenomics,” the current record of solid economic news.

Is “Bidenomics” all good news and a magic answer?  Of course not.  Plus, some critics of the Biden Administration point to what Biden has done as just more liberal spending, thus raising the federal deficit.

There may be at least some truth in that rendering, but, for now, I think Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin has performed a service with her most recent column that appeared under this headline:  Bidenomics is transformative. Biden needs to ensure voters know it.

Here is how Rubin started her column:

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“Some presidents don’t have a strong story to tell about their record, so they deflect, distract, and demonize their opponents.  Other presidents’ records almost speak for themselves. President Biden, however, finds himself in an unusual spot:  An economic record that has been working far better than most people anticipated but that the electorate doesn’t yet recognize.”

Rubin’s list of accomplishments for the Biden Administration:

“The economy has created 13 million jobs, inflation has been more than cut in half, huge investments are being made in infrastructure and green energy, wage growth has begun to outpace inflation, the first drug price controls are going into effect and the biggest corporations will finally be forced to pay something in federal taxes.

“Yet, polls show voters incorrectly think we are in a recession and remain negative about the economy.”

The White House is aware of the problem, so it is making a focused push to narrow the gap between performance and perception.

On Monday, senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn released a four-page memorandum explaining the president’s vision, which they call “Bidenomics.”

Dunn and Donilon wrote:

“Bidenomics is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up — not the top down. Implementing that economic vision and plan — and decisively turning the page on the era of trickle-down economics — has been the defining project of the Biden presidency.”

Then, they ticked off the list of accomplishments:  An economic recovery five years earlier than expected; 13 million jobs since the president took office — including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs; a higher job-participation rate for working-age Americans than at any time in the past 20 years; and others.

In a speech in Chicago, Rubin says Biden launched a renewed focus on the two most significant bi-partisan legislative accomplishments of his term, the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS and Science Act.

He hopes these measures will help brand him as the cross-aisle deal maker he sold to voters in 2020, appeal to political moderates who formed a core of his winning electoral coalition, and impress upon tuned-out voters what he has done in office.

Seasoned New York time columnist David Brooks entered this fray the other day, writing under the headline:  Why Biden Isn’t Getting the Credit He Deserves.

“The misery index is a crude but effective way to measure the health of the economy.  You add up the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.  If you’re a president running for re-election, you want that number to be as low as possible.

“When Ronald Reagan won re-election, it was about 11.4, when George W. Bush did so it was 9, for Barack Obama it was 9.5, and today, as Biden runs for re-election, it’s only 7.7.

“Biden should be cruising to an easy re-election victory.  And that misery index number doesn’t even begin to capture the strength of the American economy at the moment. The economy has created 13 million jobs since Biden’s Inauguration Day.  According to the Conference Board, a business research firm, Americans’ job satisfaction is at its highest level in 36 years. Household net worth is surging.

Why, then, Brooks asks, does Biden suffer from low poll results.  Then, answers his own question this way:

“…the main problem is national psychology.  Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives is nearly four times as high as their satisfaction with the state of the nation.  That’s likely because, during the Trump era, we have suffered a collective moral injury, a collective loss of confidence, a loss of faith in ourselves as a nation.”

The national malaise, despite good economic news, revolves around Donald Trump.  As nothing more than showman, he has capitalized on the national fear, the loss of confidence, and even encouraged it.  He says he wants to lead government, yet, every day, he runs squarely against it.

So much so that he has persuaded usually smart Americans to support him, no matter what he has done to anyone – and especially to women in this country, treating them as nothing more than objects.

Also this:  Remember, it was a number of Republicans who helped pass the major economic bills that have contributed to “Bidenomics.”

So, in theory at least, it will be difficult for them to continue going after Biden.

The way Rubin puts it:

“While GOP presidential candidates and the Republican National Committee continue to paint Biden’s economic stewardship as a rolling disaster, Republican senators who helped shape the legislation say they anticipated that those accomplishments would accrue to Biden’s political advantage — as well as to their own.”

Still, just wait for the partisan criticism.  It will be there.  In all of politics these days, it’s never the middle.  Never credit for good work.  Never consensus to solve national problems.

Always personal criticism.

I say, if you look at politics, try to focus on facts, not dissension.  There is too much of the latter and not enough of the former.

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Closing Note:  I have said in the past that I don’t intend to write any more about Donald Trump.  But, I guess, I have lied.  I cannot help myself but to mention his stupidity as I have done again in what appears above.