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.

Wall Street Journal editorial writers asked a good question this morning as they commented on the start of Donald Trump’s fraud trial in New York.

They asked:  Is this a case about inflated asset values or partisan politics?

Then, they answered their own question by saying “yes.”

While I guess they have a point, there remains little question that Trump did what he always does, which is lie about everything to advance his own image, at least the image he has of himself as a narcissist.

Consider this summary from the Journal this morning:

“Judge Arthur Engoron granted partial summary judgment to the state last week, ruling that Trump presented grossly inflated financial figures to lenders.  This is ‘not a matter of rounding errors or reasonable experts disagreeing,’ he wrote.  Trump’s famed triplex residence in Trump Tower is 10,996 square feet, but he repeatedly claimed 30,000 square feet.

“Defendants absurdly suggest that ‘the calculation of square footage is a subjective process that could lead to differing results,’ the judge added. ‘Well yes, perhaps, if the area is rounded or oddly shaped,’ but ‘good-faith measurements could vary by as much as 10-20 per cent, not 200 per cent.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud.”

The ruling goes on for pages.  Despite four appraisals pegging his Seven Springs estate at $30 million or less, Trump claimed it was worth $261 million.  He valued apartments in New York as if their rents weren’t regulated.  His figures for several golf clubs “included a 15 per cent or 30 per cent ‘premium’ based on the ‘Trump brand,” according to the judge, even while lenders were told no such premium was added.

Finally, we get some facts on what we suspect Trump has done all along, which is to inflate the size of the value of his assets in New York. 

No doubt he has done the same elsewhere, or when it came time to file tax returns, deflated those same assets.

Of course, on that score, we don’t know because Trump won’t release his tax returns.

Now the Journal, for its part of displaying “both sides” of an issue, says that the AG in New York may be out to get Trump and campaigned for office on just that promise.

I say let the facts prevail.

Trump, of course, showed up in court yesterday for a reason, using every opportunity to portray himself as a political victim.

No, he is not the victim. 

The victims are Americans, especially those who have succumbed to his lies and innuendo.

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.

First, this true confession:  I did not watch much of the just-completed Ryder Cup because I was volunteering at an Oregon Golf Association tournament in Central Oregon.

I would have been rooting for the Americans, of course, but so much for rooting.  It didn’t matter.  Never does.

The Americans got their “hats” handed to them by the European squad.

I put the word “hats” in quotes because, based on reading various on-line golf publications, it appeared there was a lot of controversy over why American golfer Pat Cantlay was not wearing a hat when he played.  The lack of a hat occupied a lot of writers, and on-site fans, as well.

For Cantlay’s part, he said the hat didn’t fit well.  Others said it was a protest because he thought Ryder Cup players should be paid to play.

Who knows?

But the hat battle apparently did spark a bit of a set-to between Euro golfer Rory McIroy and Joe LaCava, Cantley’s caddy who, McIlroy said, demonstrated too much and too close to him on a green during Saturday’s play.

For his part, McIlroy said the set-to propelled him to victory in his singles match on Sunday.

Back to the first day of the Ryder Cup.  I heard commentator Paul Azinger, himself a former Ryder Cupper, put it best when he said this:

“European players have the Ryder Cup in their hearts.  U.S. players have the Ryder Cup in their heads.”

The difference, I guess, explains how the two sides play and how much value they put in the biennial match.  Hearts vs. heads.

Two years from now, the Americans will try to redeem themselves at home at the Bethpage Black course in New York.

But in the just-completed tournament, in addition to Azinger’s telling comment, this much is true:  The Euros played better than the Americans.

Simple as that.