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.

The Wall Street Journal used words the other day that illustrate its editors’ suspicion for the law and Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin posted a column questioning polling in a presidential race this far from the election.

Both matters fit into my interest in words.

So, I decided to open one of the five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit – the Department of Words Matter.  The others are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of “Just Saying.”

ITEM #1/WHAT WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORS WROTE

“But Trump’s antagonists, instead of trying to defeat him politically, have unleashed the criminal justice system against him in every way possible.”

For me, the words that matter:  “Antagonists have unleased the criminal justice system.”

So, the Journal’s point is that antagonists are setting out to use the criminal justice system against Trump.  That’s the word “unleashed.”

I find that hard to believe.

My view:  Trump allegedly (note I use the word “allegedly” to verify that even Trump is innocent until proven guilty) has violated a huge panoply of laws and is now being held to account in court.  About time!

Opponents are not using the system to get Trump.  He and his minions have done that to themselves.

Of course – and incredibly, to me – Trump benefits from all this because, as he faces criminal charges that ought to shake him senseless as they would any other defendant, he simply turns those charges into a political benefit.  That was on view as Trump appeared in a New York court and tried to turn his time on the witness stand into just another political foray.

The judge tried to stop Trump, at least part of the time.

At rallies, in fundraising letters, and wherever he can find an attentive listener, the former president — who faces 91 felony charges, four criminal trials and, in the New York civil case, the prospect of a court-ordered dismantling of his financial empire — has taken up a new mantra: 

“They’re not after me; they’re after you,” said the headline plastered across the top of Trump’s campaign website when the New York trial began.  “I’m just standing in the way.”

COMMENT:  What appears above illustrates how much words matter.

ITEM #2/POLITICAL COVERAGE FROM JENNIFER RUBIN

“Last week,” Rubin writes, “demonstrated the sorry state of political coverage in this country.  The fixation on early, non-predictive polling and endless speculation that President Joe Biden might step away from the 2024 race (contrary to all evidence) created an endless cycle of frenzied coverage, none of it informative about democracy, the issues or the threat of an authoritarian regime in a second Trump presidency.

“No major American news outlet has been immune.

“Political coverage could be different.  Cover what is happening, including abortion rights organizing, job creation in the heartland, political activism among young people, internal migration’s effect on states, and demographic changes since 2020.  

News outlets could provide insight into campaign operations such as political organizing, message testing, and surrogate effectiveness.  That would be interesting.

“Americans deserve better. Our democracy needs better.”

COMMENT:  Rubin is right and I agree based on my background in journalism, albeit long ago. 

The focus on “horse race politics” – who’s ahead, etc. – gets old, especially at least a year in advance of the presidential election.

Rubin is writing about polling, but she uses good points to question whether polling matters any more – at least not as much as it once might have.

First, many persons who are called to participate often don’t want to do so…so they hang up.  Second, some persons who respond don’t answer honestly for who knows what reasons.  Third, some persons just are not paying attention and that argues against any notion that their responses mean much.

In my professional career, I worked with several excellent pollsters, including one who was a partner in the firm where I also was a partner.  He and others who did quality work worried a lot about at least three things – the timing of their work, using words that would be understandable to those who read or heard them, and striving for quality science.

Given today’s “get even” form of politics, journalists have a tough job to do, but, as an aspiration, I say, with Rubin, that they can do better.  So can pollsters.