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.

In the headline on this blog, I add the word “but” because, in politics these days, nothing is sacred for more than a few hours, or perhaps minutes.

The influence of social media renders the old issue of “media deadlines” irrelevant – and deadlines were something I dealt with back in the day when I worked as a journalist.

No longer.

Still, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to fast start, at least in part because they have injected a sense of joy and optimism into the election campaign that otherwise involved pessimism.

Optimism is especially true of Democrats as they anticipate the tandem of Harris and Walz.  Many Democrats are re-energized.  But there are early signs that some Republicans in the middle have caught the pro-Harris/Walz, anti-Trump vibe.

The elevation of Walz to the vice president slot also appears to have caught Donald Trump and his campaign off guard.

Here is how Tom Nichols, writing in Atlantic Magazine, described the status:

“No one is handling the past few weeks more poorly than Trump himself, who, as The Bulwark’s Andrew Egger noted, seems to have retreated into an Aaron Sorkin–inspired fantasy.  Yesterday, the former president posted this on his Truth Social site:

“’What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE.

“’He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!’”

I’ll leave the bad spelling and bad capitalization to Trump, but Nichols continues:

“Kamabla”?

“This might be too much even for a Sorkin script. Trump’s reactions lately are so unhinged, so hysterical, that they could pass for one of those scenes in a soap opera where a drunken dowager finds out that her May-December romance is a sham, and she begs him, as mascara flows down her cheeks, to fly off with her to Gstaad or Antibes to rekindle their love.

“In reality, of course, this is all a disturbing reminder that Trump is a deeply unwell person who is not fit to be the commander in chief, and that should he return to office, other Republican officials cannot be counted on to protect the nation — especially Vance, who reveals himself daily as every bit the intellectual lightweight and political fraud his critics believe he is.

“The Democrats are doing well, and Republicans are sitting in the middle of a tire fire.  But Trump is still in a commanding electoral position, and he could still win.  The pro-democracy coalition has every reason to enjoy some good news, but these past few weeks should not obscure the existential danger America faces in November.”

Nichols hits the nail on the head.

But, despite Republican overreaction and Democrat resurgence, the election is far from over.

Which means it is all the more important for rational-thinking humans to oppose any rise for Trump who wants to turn America into a dictatorship – with, of course, Trump as dictator.

And, this footnote.

The latest squabble over the military records of Walz and Vance strikes me as just that – a squabble that will play in some media commentaries, but probably won’t roil the campaign much.  It requires too much time and attention for most voters to parse all of the details.

And, even Harris, in commenting on the issue, gave credit to both Walz and Vance for the fact that they served.

So, on to more important issues in the presidential campaign.