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.

I answer the question in the headline this way:

On the night Harry Truman beat back expectations to defeat Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential election, I was just being born.

Yes, on November 2, 1948.

Do I remember that time?

Well, not exactly.

But, since then, I have come to remember the date because Truman overcame a huge deficit to defeat Dewey.  And, some newspapers wrote headlines heralding Dewey’s win on November 2, then had to apologize and back-track with new headlines proclaiming Truman the victor.

Wall Street Journal columnist and former Republican operative Karl Rove recalled all this for me when he wrote for the Wall Street Journal under this headline:  Biden Can Shout, but He’s No Truman.

Rove added this:

“America’s octogenarian president delivered a 67-minute State of the Union address last week.  Joe Biden did it with what the press called ‘high energy,’ a synonym for lots of shouting.  His address was punctuated by Democrats chanting ‘Four more years, four more years!

“Biden did what he had to do.  He exceeded the low expectations many Americans had for his performance.  He calmed — for the moment — Democrat bed-wetters concerned about his stamina, energy, and ability to deliver a message.

“Still, it is far from clear he changed voters’ fundamental concerns.  He is too old.  He has memory problems.  He does lack stamina.  And shouting or no, Americans know it.

“Polls in the coming weeks are likely to show little or no positive impact of Biden’s State of the Union performance on his standing on the issues or with voters.  The Democrat nervous Nellies may start hyperventilating again.”

I like Rove because he goes after any candidate he believes is having difficulty with campaigns.  That means, in the current presidential context, both Biden and Trump, not just the Democrat.

But I also think Rove sells Biden short, though he, Biden, will have to do a lot to counter Trump.

As for hyperventilating, that’s probably what I do when it comes to Trump.

If, as Rove contends, wrongly I submit, that Biden’s age is a disqualifying factor to run for president, then Trump is not qualified because he is nothing if not a jerk. 

He ridicules people.  He criticizes everyone.  He hates military heroes, including Vietnam War hero John McCain when he, Trump, never served.  He inflates his net worth, except when it comes to paying taxes where he deflates.  He asks his followers to subvert the U.S. Constitution and declare him to be president despite the FACT that he lost the last election.

So, when the time comes for the next presidential election, now only a few months away, will there be an upset as there was in 1948.  And, if there was an upset, what would that be – Biden over Trump or Trump over Biden?

As in 1948, we’ll find out in early November…on or about my birthday.