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.

This is one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit because, you see, I am a management guru.

The other departments:  The Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of “Just Saying,” the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know, and the Department of Words Matter.

So, here are more quotes worth remembering.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ON MICROSOFT:  This was the headline and subhead:  How Microsoft Catapulted to $3 Trillion on the Back of AI; Software giant becomes second company ever to reach the mark, boosted in part by its investment in OpenAI.

“Microsoft on Thursday became the second company ever to end the trading day valued at more than $3 trillion, a milestone reflecting investor optimism that one of the oldest tech companies is leading an artificial-intelligence revolution. 

“In the past decade, Microsoft’s success has come from smart bets by Chief Executive Satya Nadella.  One of his biggest gambles in recent years has been partnering with an untested non-profit startup — generative AI pioneer OpenAI — and quickly folding its technology into Microsoft’s bestselling products. That move made Microsoft a de facto leader in a burgeoning AI field many believe will retool the tech industry.”

COMMENT:  Why do I choose to report this?  Two reasons:  First, it’s interesting to see how one company is burnishing its own future with risky commitments such as to AI, and, second, my former son-in-law works for the company, so it is, again, interesting to note the company’s huge trajectory.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  Under this headline – “Trump won New Hampshire — and showed us exactly who he is,” columnist Frank Bruni wrote this:

“About an hour and a half after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the Republican primary in New Hampshire, he appeared onstage at a victory rally in Nashua, N.H., to bask in his accomplishment and bash lesser mortals.

“Bask-and-bash is his preferred M.O., an indulgence of the love he feels for himself and the contempt he feels for almost everybody else, and his bearing and remarks indeed had a familiar, compulsory ring.  As Trump performances go, it was an unremarkable one.

“And yet so utterly revealing.  So perfectly emblematic.  CNN went live to Nashua and stayed with Trump for maybe 10 minutes, maybe less — the new fashion is to mete out attention to Trump modestly, carefully, lest he get too big a megaphone for his lies — and yet that abbreviated encounter provided ample information.  I was struck by all that it communicated.

“Such as the sycophancy surrounding Trump.  Right behind him, visible over his shoulder, was Senator Tim Scott, a man who prides himself on his faith and decency, a former rival of Trump’s for the Republican nomination, now another toady in Trump’s service, surely angling to be his running mate, already on board as a campaign-trail surrogate.

COMMENT:  Bruni is right – Trump loves himself and no one else.  Such is the role of a narcissist.  And, then, a “toady” like Scott shows up to try to burnish his own supposed credentials by bowing to Trump.

One hopes that yesterday’s $83 million defamation verdict against Trump will stop him in his tracks.  But, not likely.  Trump will use verdict to showcase his status as a “victim.”

MORE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  Chief political analyst Nate Cohn writes this:  “Is the Republican presidential primary over already?”

“Not quite, but it’s a reasonable question after New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary delivered a clear victory for Donald Trump.  And if your definition of “over” is whether Trump is now on track to win without a serious contest, the answer is probably “yes.”

“With nearly all the counting done, he won 55 per cent of the vote.  His only remaining rival, Nikki Haley, won 44 per cent.

“Trump’s 11-point margin of victory is not extraordinarily impressive in its own right.  In fact, he won by a smaller margin than many pre-election polls suggested.”

COMMENT:  Given this result, my view is that Haley should persevere – and she has made that decision on her own without consulting me.  Good.

I hope she is able at least to give Trump a run for his money.  Too much to hope for?  Perhaps.  But, still hope is worth preserving.

FROM DAN BALZ IN THE WASHINGTON POST:  “Trump is certainly strong within the base of the Republican Party, but still a powerfully divisive force with the broader electorate.  His admiration for authoritarian leaders is a warning about his aspirations if he wins in November.  He is under indictment on 91 felony counts.

“No Republican can know with any certainty what further damage his legal problems will do to him by September or October, or how a broader electorate will evaluate him.  Republicans are taking a risk with him as their nominee (just as Democrats are taking a risk with Biden).”

COMMENT:  Balz is one of the best political analysts going today.  Thus, his comments on Trump are worth considering.

Further, in his piece in the Post today, he notes that Trump does not do well with strong women such as Haley.  Trump views all women as just objects.  Balz hopes Haley will continue tormenting Trump, calling him “just one of the fellas,” her term for men involved in the presidential race who usually don’t have much respect, if any, for women.