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.

There are at least three conclusions for me based on the recent presidential primary in New Hampshire.

1. Donald Trump is still nuts and cannot even remember his own name on occasion.
2. Nikki Halley came on strong in the primary and said she will stay in the race, which means she’ll have to take on Trump directly.
3. If Trump prevails – as seems likely – then we’ll have two old guys running for president, Trump and Joe Biden, which is not healthy for the country, nor for all of us as voters.

Biden continues to get brickbats for his tendency to forget name and places, a trait for many old folks like myself.

There has been so much written about Biden’s memory lapses, so I will focus the rest of this blog on Trump.

In the Wall Street Journal, Republican political analyst Karl Rove wrote this to summarize New Hampshire results:

“Trump, the winner with a projected 54 per cent of the vote, was irritated and nasty.  He castigated Haley as an ‘impostor’ who’d had ‘a very bad night’ and suggested New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has ‘got to be on something’ for supporting her.

“He closed by snarling, ‘I don’t get too angry, I get even.’  The 19-minute rant made him look like an irate old man, not a confident, happy warrior.”

Rove went to provide a quick summary of Trump’s mental sharpness, or, more accurately, the lack of it:

“Then there’s Trump’s mental sharpness.  Biden’s cognitive shortcomings have long been painfully cataloged.  But Trump, who turns 78 in June, has had some notable flubs of his own.  This month he repeatedly used Haley’s name while trying to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for Capitol security lapses on January 6, 2021.

“He mixed up Biden’s and Barack Obama’s names seven times last fall, according to a November Forbes report, a habit Trump later said was deliberate sarcasm.  He has also said he beat Obama for president and accused Biden of leading America into World War II.  Maybe this is stress rather than age.  Whatever it is, it could be a problem for Trump.”

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Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank joined the fray after saying he has nothing better to do so attended the New Hampshire primary.

“This New Hampshire primary, like the Iowa caucuses before it, was a dud, with no real contest on either side.  But that is not to say it was without value.

“For New Hampshire showed us, beyond all doubt, that Trump is very, very confused.

“In October, in a speech in Derry, New Hampshire, he informed his audience that Viktor Orban, the strongman who rules Hungary, is “the leader of Turkey.”

“In November, in a speech in Claremont, New Hampshire, he advised the crowd that the current leader of the United States is President Obama. 

“Then, on Friday night, at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump confused his Republican primary opponent, Haley, with former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.  He claimed that Haley was in charge of security during the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, that she refused all of his offers of help, and that she destroyed the evidence.

Of course, amidst these mistakes, Trump boasts of his own mental capacity.

He assured his supporters that he “took a cognitive test” and “I aced it.”

But, according to Milbank:

“Trump has previously boasted of his ability to identify an image of a ‘whale’ on said assessment, but, there is no such marine mammal on any version of the test.”

Back to my three conclusions.

• Both Biden and Trump are showing their age, which means they should not be running for the highest political office in the land.  Neither.  But, if it comes down to the two, I go with Biden.
• Haley should stay in the race to give Republicans a choice, especially as Trump continues to spend time in court trying to defend himself.  And, if she finds a way, even as a Republican, to appeal to middle-of-the-road Republicans fed up with Trump.
• And, if only because of their ages, American voters deserve better options than Trump and Biden.