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.

Could Nikki Haley become U.S. president?

A good question.

Betters – even those who choose to bet on politics so far in advance of a result — might say “no.”  She has too steep a hill to climb to get over Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.

But, in the Washington Post, columnist Kathleen Parker, makes the case for Haley in a piece that appeared under this headline:  “A Rational Case for Nikki Haley As President.”

Parkers’ words are worth considering so I include these excerpts in my blog, with a few additional comments from me along the way:

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From Parker:  “Though it seems as if campaigning for the 2024 presidential election began right after the last one ended, the voting is only now beginning, with Iowa’s Republican caucuses on January 15.

“As usual, we’ll learn that the caucuses are strange and chaotic.  We’ll be reminded that the winner might not become the GOP nominee but one of the losers might.  And it’s on to New Hampshire on January 23 and South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary on February 24.

“Most bets are on Donald Trump, despite fierce campaigning by his top challengers, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has visited all 99 Iowa counties and secured the Iowa governor’s endorsement.  DeSantis is seen as needing to score second place in Iowa to continue his bid, as Haley and Trump are polling ahead of him in New Hampshire.”

Parker contends – and I agree – that there are “countless reasons” Trump, who has declared himself the revenge candidate, should be, as Parker put it well, “swept into history’s dustbin and left to spend his golden years as a professional defendant.”

More from Parker:

“In addition to risking a repeat of January 6, 2021, a Trump loss would leave us with the elderly Joe Biden in the presidency and the painful probability that he won’t live to complete his second term.  And you know what that means.  The single strongest argument against Biden’s re-election is Vice President Harris.

“I can’t stress enough how irresponsible it would be to make a Harris presidency possible.  Just listen to her speeches.  Her rhetorical flourishes can be dumbfounding, as when she says, “When we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community.”

I think Parker goes too far in criticizing Harris.  First, Harris is the vice president and what goes with that job is almost nothing.  To be sure, Harris may not have performed well in the role, but that, to me, is not enough to rail against her possibility of becoming president if – yes, if — Biden wins.

Biden has different issues, Parker continues and then goes on:

“Never mind the verbal pratfalls for which he has long been infamous; it’s his physical ones that are most worrisome.  Falling is the No. 1 cause of fatal injuries in older people, and at times, it seems Biden is tilting too far for comfort.  No one wants to hear personal criticism of our aged president, so we’ll leave it at:  Go home, Joe.

“Biden was surely the better choice in 2020 — far preferable to a guy accused of paying a porn star for sex and silence while his wife was taking care of an infant, a constitutional heathen who encouraged a siege of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters and believers in the ‘big lie.’
“Trump, don’t forget, was impeached by the House of Representatives for inciting violence against the Government of the United States.

“This glowering, pouty-frowned schlump belongs nowhere near the White House.  Trump is an unfit candidate.  Full stop.”

Parker provides this conclusion:

“Thus, we are left with Haley and DeSantis.  My view is that Haley is far and above the best pick for the jobs of chief executive and commander in chief.  Like DeSantis, she has been a governor — South Carolina, where she was popular enough to be re-elected.  She left that job to become Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, where she was a natural.

“Articulate, knowledgeable and a quick study, she entered and left the position as a polished pro.

“Do the right thing for your country, Iowa, and vote for Haley.”

If I lived in Iowa, I would vote for Haley.  And, if I was a Republican, she would be a far better option for me than Trump.  Not even close.

Given my status – an Oregonian who is an independent – I’ll just keep hoping that voters do something better than Trump.  He is the worst choice among Republicans.  Haley is the best.