Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan has underlined some of the qualities Kamala Harris has going for her as she takes on Donald Trump for the right to be the next president.

Noonan wrote under this headline and subhead:  “The Fight of Trump’s Political Life; Harris has the wind at her back; her strengths became clearer in the past two weeks.”

Here how she started her column:

“Those who think about politics and history as a profession can’t resist comparing presidential years.  ‘This is 1968 all over again.’  ‘We’re back to the dynamics of ’72.’  We do this because we know political history and love it, and because there are always parallels and lessons to be learned.

“But it should be said as a reminder:  This year isn’t like any previous time.

“This is the year of the sudden, historically disastrous debate, the near-assassination of one of the nominees, the sudden removal of the president from his ticket, the sudden elevation of a vice president her own party had judged a liability, and her suddenly pulling even in a suddenly truncated campaign.”

Noonan cited what she called “major pluses” for Harris:

• She is new.  She seems a turning of the page away from Old Biden and Old Trump.  She looks new, like a new era.  She displays vigor and the joy of the battle.  The mainstream media is on her side.  Coverage hasn’t been tough or demanding.

• On policy she is bold to the point of shameless.  This week she essentially said:  You know those policies I stood for that you don’t like?  I changed my mind!  Her campaign began blithely disavowing previous stands, with no explanation.  From the New York Times’s Reid Epstein:  “The Harris campaign announced on Friday that the vice president no longer wanted to ban fracking, a significant shift from where she stood four years ago.”

Campaign officials said she also now supports “increased funding for border enforcement; no longer supported a single-payer health insurance program; and echoed Biden’s call for banning assault weapons but not a requirement to sell them to the federal government.”

• She is a born performer.  She knows what she’s doing when she’s campaigning.  She is less sure of what she’s doing when she’s governing.  But she gets a race.  Running for the 2020 Democratic nomination, she wasn’t good at strategy or policy, but the part involving performing and being a public person and speaking with merry conviction — she gets that and is good at it.

• She is beautiful.  You can’t take a bad picture of her.  Her beauty, plus the social warmth that all who have known her over the years speak of, combines to produce:  Radiance.  It is foolish to make believe this doesn’t matter.  Politicians themselves are certain it matters, which is why so many in that male-dominated profession have taken to Botox, fillers, dermabrasion, face lifts, all the cosmetic things.  Because they’re in a cosmetic profession.

• She has a wave of pent-up support behind her.  By November, we’ll know if something big happened.  Barack Obama deliberately, painstakingly put new constituencies together.  He created a movement.  It had fervor and energy.  What we may see this year is something different — that a movement created Kamala Harris.  That is, the old constituencies held, maintained fervor and rose again when Biden stepped aside and Harris was put on top.  I’m not sure we’ve seen that before.

To this, I add a question:  Will Harris’ strengths be enough to beat Trump?  The old, hackneyed phrase is appropriate – “only time will tell.”

But, Harris’ start has energized many Democrats and, I hope, will entice independents to join the ranks of her supporters.

Meanwhile, according to another columnist, Dana Milbank, who writes for the Washington Post, “The out of control Trump — suppressed in recent months with varying degrees of success — is back.

Milbank continues:

“For the last year, we’ve been hearing about the “disciplined,” “competent” and “professional” campaign Donald Trump is running.  After his chaotic 2016 and 2020 campaigns, he brought in longtime Republican operatives to lead a “low-drama” operation.

“Well, the cat lady is out of the bag.

“The trauma caused by the broadly panned choice of Senator J.D. Vance as a running mate, combined with President Biden’s withdrawal from the race and the massive outpouring of support for Vice President Harris, have had a terrible effect on Trump:  They have caused him to revert to being himself.

“Discipline has broken down, and the out-of-control Trump — suppressed in recent months with varying degrees of success — is back on full display.”

Including as he tore into Harris as not really being black, a stupid comment if there ever was one – but I hope it redounds to Trump’s discredit.

Combined with Harris’ strengths, Trump’s out-of-control self could be his undoing.