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.

If you need another reason to question the sanity of Donald Trump as he runs for president, consider this.

He is saluting Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal in the film, Silence of the Lambs. 

Trump invokes Lecter as a “great man.” He probably the movie’s Lecter thinks is a real figure, one to be modeled.

Need any more to question and oppose Trump?

I don’t!

I’ll just add this to an already long list. 

But I did find another word this morning that describes Trump to a T:  Supercilious. 

It means this:  “Behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.”

That’s Trump.

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.

I wrote this headline after returning from church yesterday where we heard members of the Salem Refugee Community sing about God in various languages, often their own.

Their participation illustrated a couple things:

• God is THE GOD of all people, not just those who happen to live in America or who look like us.

• Salem Alliance Church, the church we have attended in Salem, Oregon, for more than 30 years, has led an effort to welcome refugees to this country – and, of all places, these solid citizens live, figuratively at least, right next door to us in the Salem-Keizer area.

A third point is that what we saw at our church this morning creates a very different picture than some citizens propound, which is that immigration is evil and threatens our way of life.

Of course, the leader of that anti-immigrant message is one Donald Trump who wants to be president again.  But, this blog is not about Trump.

It is about the REAL PEOPLE whom we call immigrants or refugees.

All of us need to welcome to America just as our forebears were welcomed in the past.

It was awe-inspiring to see and hear the refugees sing about God in their own languages – Swahili, French, Sango, Arabic, Spanish – as well as, for us, English.

It showed, to make my point again, that God is THE GOD OF ALL PEOPLE, not just those who look and act like us.

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.

Migrants and the crimes they allegedly commit have been a hallmark of Donald Trump’s political campaigns.

By this, he tries to appeal to White folks who believe migrants are the source of their problems.

Is it true?

No.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, German Lopez summarized things this way:

“Republicans suggest that immigrants are especially likely to be criminals.  The data shows the opposite.”

Lopez went on:

“Throughout the first three days of the Republican National Convention, officials highlighted a surge in what they call ‘migrant crime.’  President Biden has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly,’ according to Texas Governor Greg Abbot.  (And, I add, Abbot always is a flame thrower; facts don’t matter.)

“The day before, Senator Ted Cruz, also from Texas said, ‘Every day, Americans are dying in crimes committed by migrants.’”

The fact is, Lopez wrote, that there is no migrant crime surge.

“In U.S., rates of crime and immigration have moved in opposite directions in recent years.  After illegal immigration plummeted in 2020, the murder rate rose.  And after illegal immigration spiked in 2021 and 2022, murders plateaued and then fell.

“Over a longer period, there is no relationship between immigration and crime trends.  The number of foreign-born Americans has increased for decades, while the murder rate has gone up and down at different times.”

Of course, Lopez adds, some migrants have committed violent crimes.

“There are more than 45 million immigrants in the U.S., and invariably some of them — just like people of any other group — will do bad things. Similarly, thousands of native-born Americans commit violent crimes in any given week.”

As for the migrant issue in general, I have written about it previously to make three points:

• Migrants are individuals – real people – hoping for a better life in America.  They are real people.
• All of us who live here in the United States have descended in some way from migrants.
• There is no excuse for policymakers in this country – both Republicans and Democrats – for not solving the illegal immigrant problem.  Tough, but possible.
• The last time around, when a solution was moving through Congress, Trump came out vehemently against the solution because, guess what – he would rather run against migrants than solve the problem.

For his part, Lopez, the writer, summarizes the status this way:

“But more immigration has not caused more crime.  The myth that crime is up can perpetuate stereotypes and racism.  Immigrants who arrived in New York recently told The Times that local residents were often hostile.  They make rude comments under their breath or move away in subway cars.  One Venezuelan lamented that people now saw all migrants in the same way: ‘violent.’

That is just not true.  So, as always, as we focus on the upcoming presidential election, it is important to separate fact from fiction.

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.

Incredibly, the other day the New York Times included a story on this “major” political issue – the use of apostrophes.

Yes, the use of apostrophes!

It is an issue that occupies the minds of some folks in this country who focus on grammar and the proper use of punctuation marks.

As a writer for the New York Times put it:  “With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on the Democrat presidential political tickets, these apostrophe buffs were doing head spins.”

The story appeared under this headline:

“Is It Harris’ or Harris’s?  Add a Walz, and It’s Even Trickier.”

With wars and rumors of wars on every hand, not to mention a divisive presidential campaign in the United States, apostrophes, for more people, don’t make the list of important issues.

For the grammar geeks, they do.

So, the question is where are voters and journalists supposed to place the possessive squiggle?

The options:

• Harris’
• Harris’s
• Walz’
• Walz’s

More from the NY Times:

“It all felt a bit like apostrophe hell:  Would it be Ms. Harris’s and Mr. Walz’s or Ms. Harris’ and Mr. Walz’s?  The Harrises and the Walzes?  The Harrises’ family home and the Walzes’ family dog?  It was enough to see double, made worse by the fact that stylebooks, large news organizations, and grammar geeks were all split or contradicted one another.

“’Anyone who tells you there are universal rules to how to add an apostrophe ending in S is either wrong or lying,’ Jeffrey Barg, a grammar columnist, said.  ‘You can’t be wrong as long as you’re consistent.’”

“The Associated Press Stylebook, widely considered to be the gold standard among news organizations, is clear on its rule for the possessive of singular proper names ending in ‘s’ — only an apostrophe is needed (Harris’), though there are always exceptions.  The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all do the opposite, opting for ’s to mark a singular possessive and a simple apostrophe for plural possessive (Harrises’ and Walzes’).”

Now, with all that, I add:  Who cares?

There actually is a person who does — Bob McCalden, who leads the Apostrophe Protection Society in the United Kingdom.  Who knew there was such a group?

According to the NY Times, McCalden says this:

“’The challenge I would put to anyone that said, no, the possessive of Harris is just with an apostrophe, is how do you say that?  By using only an apostrophe and not including an extra S, the name doesn’t flow properly.’”

Plus, the discourse comes at a pivotal time for apostrophes:  Thursday, August 15, is International Apostrophe Day.

So, mark your calendar!

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.

The Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, one of five departments I run as director, is open again.

Which enables me to reprint recent comments from three columnists who write for the New York Times.  And they write well.

Together, writing separately, they skewer Donald Trump who deserves to be skewered for his lack of any redeeming value, even as he runs for president again.

Here’s a summary of the three:

FROM FRANK BRUNI IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:  The size of the crowd at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta last month rivaled the turnout for Donald Trump days later only “because she had entertainers,” Trump told the audience at his event, referring to the rappers Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion.  “I don’t need entertainers.”

Translation:  Harris cheated.  Even so, she didn’t get the better of him.

She isn’t really Black but “happened to turn Black” over the course of her political career.  That’s what Trump said at a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, insinuating that Harris had performed a melanin metamorphosis and was falsely improvising identities to contrive some perk unavailable to him.

Poor Trump.  Always forced to compete on an uneven playing field.

FROM EZRA KLEIN IN THE NY TIMES:  Kamala Harris has a very different theory of this election than Joe Biden did.

In 2020, and then again in 2024, Biden ceded the battle for attention to Donald Trump. Whether as a matter of strategy or, as a result of Biden’s own limitations, Biden adopted a low-key campaigning style, letting Trump dominate news cycle after news cycle.  Trump wanted the election to be about Donald Trump, and Joe Biden wanted the election to be about Donald Trump.  On that much, they agreed.

In 2020, when Trump was the unpopular incumbent, that strategy worked for Biden.  In 2024, when Biden was the unpopular incumbent, it was failing him.  It was failing in part because Biden no longer had the communication skills to foreground Trump’s sins and malignancies.

It was failing in part because some voters had grown nostalgic for the Trump-era economy.  It was failing in part because Biden’s age and stumbles kept turning attention back to Biden and his fitness for office, rather than keeping it on Trump and Trump’s fitness for office.

Then came the debate, and Biden’s decision to step aside, and Harris’s ascent as the Democratic nominee.  

Harris has been able to do what Biden could or would not: fight — and win — the battle for attention.  She had help, to be sure.  On-line meme-makers who found viral gold in an anecdote about coconuts.  Charli XCX’s “kamala IS brat.”

But much of it is strategy and talent.  Harris holds the camera like no politician since Barack Obama.

FROM MAUREEN DOWD IN THE NY TIMES:  From the first time I went on an exploratory political trip with Trump in 1999, he has measured his worth in numbers.  His is not an examined life but a quantified life.

When I asked him why he thought he could run for president, he cited his ratings on “Larry King Live.”  He was at his most animated reeling off his ratings, like Faye Dunaway in “Network,” reciting how well her shows were doing.

He pronounced himself better than other candidates because of numbers:  The number of men who desired his then-girlfriend, Melania Knauss; the number of zoning changes he had maneuvered to get; the number of stories he stacked on his building near the U.N.; the number of times he was mentioned in a Palm Beach newspaper.

By his mode of valuation, if his numbers aren’t better than his rivals, he’s worthless.

That’s why Trump is always obsessing on his crowd numbers and accusing the press of lowballing head counts.

And that’s why he couldn’t admit he lost the election.  If Joe Biden put more numbers on the board, Trump was worthless.  The master huckster’s whole identity revolves around having higher numbers, even if they’re fake.  (He always pretended his skyscrapers had more stories than they did.)

*********

There.  Three columnists rate Trump and, by my measure, give him failing grades. 

Of course, as the epitome of the narcissist, he hates being rated or coming in second. 

But that’s where he belongs and, I hope, will stay there in the coming election.

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.

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 are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of “Just Saying,” the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of Words Matter.

So, Inquiring Minds want to know:

IN SOCCER:  Why so many players fall to the ground, either on their own or when they run into another player, then lay on the ground writing in seeming pain and clutching a leg?

Of course, sometimes the pain is real in a game that is played on the run.  And, if that is so, call the medical staff. 

But, at other times, it appears the players are just grasping for air or taking a sort-of timeout.

I saw this on numerous occasions as I watched the Paris Olympics, which just ended Sunday.

IN DRIVING 16-WHEEL TRUCKS:  Why do so many trucks stop on the side of the roads leading out of rest-areas on major highways?

As I travel north and south on I-5 in Oregon and California, I see this all the time.

Why?

Perhaps someone smarter than me – is there anybody? – will fill me in.

IN GOLF:  Why don’t rules officials call more slow-play penalties on professional golfers?

Most players – not all, but most – exceed the allotted time to play their next shhot, which is 40 seconds after they arrive at their golf ball, with a 10-second add-on when there is something unusual about the next shot…say the golfer is close to a tree, etc.

The professional game often takes longer than five hours to play 18 holes.  Yes, five hours!

It shouldn’t take that long, no matter how much money rides on each stroke.  But, until rules officials begin to issue warnings or penalties, nothing will change.

I have written about this before and my suggestion is that golf adopt a shot clock.  It can be done by having a golf cart, with a shot clock on the back, follow every group, then use the clock to measure times.  It happened once in what came to be called “The Shot Clock Masters” in Europe.

With the shot clock, one violation gets a warning.  And, then, further violations either cost stroke penalties, or in the most extreme cases, disqualification.

Good idea.  Pro golf in the United States should try it.

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.

One word has made its way into today’s political lexicon:  Weird.

It was used by the new Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz to describe the Republican ticket – Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

And the word has caught on.

Probably for this reason:  It is simple and quick – one word — to describe the anti-America campaign Trump and Vance are running, which goes to depths of ugliness not seen in previous campaigns, even the past ones Trump has run.

Or, as Washington Post commentator Dana Milbank put it in his column yesterday:

“As Democrats play to massive, raucous crowds, the Republican ticket is busy courting angry young men.”

Milbank went on:

“One (Harris-Walz) is running a high-decibel campaign.  The other (Trump-Vance) is waging a high-incel campaign.

“The Harris-Walz ticket debuted this week as ‘joyful warriors’ before massive, raucous crowds.  The Trump-Vance ticket focused its outreach on angry young men.

“Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz were rallying newly optimistic Democrats in seven battleground states.  In Wisconsin, people abandoned their cars in cornfields and walked to the event rather than wait in a traffic jam.

“In Philadelphia on Tuesday, people began lining up 12 hours before Harris was expected to speak despite intermittent rain and temperatures that reached 90 degrees.

“From my seat in the press section on the arena floor, I measured the noise when Harris and Walz took the stage at 107 decibels.  That’s approaching rock-concert levels, but it wasn’t coming from the sound system; it was entirely from the lungs of 12,000 Democrats.

“A low-energy Trump, by contrast, scheduled only one rally, in Montana. Instead, he and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, made a series of overtures to the ‘manosphere,’ an online community of right-wing — and frequently misogynistic — men.”

To specific, Milbank added this:

“At Mar-a-Lago, Trump sat down for an hour and a half with 23-year-old live-streamer Adin Ross, who has been banned from the streaming platform Twitch for ‘hateful conduct.’  For the benefit of Ross’s hyper-masculine young audience, the two men discussed their shared fondness for Ultimate Fighting and compared their ‘favorite fighters,’ and Trump praised the ‘good heart’ of antisemitic rapper Ye.

“The two also discussed their admiration for the Nelk Boys (“great people,” Trump said), other far-right influencers who, like Ross, have promoted self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, known for celebrating violence against women and who is facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania.”

So, yes, that’s weird.

And, I hope the weird label will stick if only because it may prompt some people to avoid voting for Trump.

Further, Trump continues to exhibit an inability to deliver a coherent message about his campaign – and, as a supporter of the Harris-Walz ticket, I hope he continues to spew whatever comes across his unwell mind.

Aaron Blake, writing in the Washington Post, put it this way:

“ The superficial, oversimplified reason Democrats decided to turn the page on President Joe Biden in the 2024 election was that he was too old. The more specific reason may have been that this problem — manifested in his stilted, often incoherent speaking and a light schedule — rendered him largely incapable of driving a consistent message about Donald Trump.

“That fateful June 27 debate epitomized it.  Biden didn’t even mention Project 2025, for instance, despite its quickly emerging as a leading Democrat talking point.  And that was a big problem, especially with Trump suddenly more popular than he’d been in many years.

“That very liability has now landed firmly in Republicans’ laps.

“Amid some Republican consternation about Trump and his campaign’s slow build toward making a case against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump emerged Thursday from his relative obscurity to deliver a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

“He spoke and took questions at length — for more than an hour.

“One thing he did not do:  Offer anything amounting to a coherent or detailed case against Harris and her running mate, Walz.

“Trump has for years been prone to tangents and riffs and generalities, but even by his standards this session was unfocused.  And that was despite the apparent reason for calling the news conference in the first place:  To take on an opponent who was rising in the polls.”

So I say to Trump-Vance, continue with the inability to mount a credible campaign.

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.

Here are the two stories I will describe:

• Questions about honesty and veracity dating back to my time as press secretary to Oregon Governor Atiyeh, now nearly 50 years ago.

• The total of lies Donald Tromp told when he was president.  And, now he just adds to the total.

What do these two issues have in common? 

Well, not much, except as they relate to an issue – honesty in politics and government, including in (a) the Executive Branch and (b) as candidates run for office.

Honesty in government tends to be these days an old term.  What matters more, it seems, is the ability to deliver a message, no matter whether it is true or not, via social media.

For my part, I rue the day when honesty in government retreated from the public conscience – and the fact is a tribute….no read, debit – to Trump.

Story #1:  When I served as Governor Atiyeh’s press secretary, I received a report from the Oregon Economic Development Department that described how many jobs the department had helped to create in the last year.

But could I trust the numbers?

I wondered, but I decided to develop a news release for the governor outlining the report as a way to underline an Atiyeh emphasis – helping to create jobs in Oregon.

Still, I remained concerned that I had produced information that would stand up under scrutiny, which I label, perhaps immodestly, with this phrase – honesty in government matters so those who depend on government – read, taxpayers – can trust what the government does.

And what the government says. 

In this story, it turned out that I was never asked about detail behind the numbers.  But, if I had been questioned, I was ready with information.

Further, it you happen to make a mistake in government, then correct the record, that corrections can augment your credibility.

Story #2:  With Trump, honesty went the way of the trash bin.

Sticking with facts and truth is not in his makeup.  If something comes into his mind, it makes its way to his mouth.  And, if he says it, then he believes it is true.

Consider what the Washington Post Fact Checker column found.

During his four years as president, Trump told an incredible number of lies – more than 30,500 during those four years.  Which meant about 20 per day.

The Fact Checker column labeled his conduct:  “A tsunami of untruths.”

To ask the question underlying this column:  Did Trump dishonesty matter?

The answer, at least in part, as that it did because Joe Biden beat him when he ran for re-election – and one reason, surely not the only one, was that Trump lied about everything.

And, I hope it matters today, too, as Trump, incredibly, tries to win back the Oval Office by a “tsunami of untruths.”

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.

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 politics today, the focus will be on whom Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris will name as her vice president to run against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

Like many other political junkies, I am waiting for the announcement while hoping that the person whom Harris chooses will help her defeat Trump/Vance.

In America, we cannot tolerate another Trump win.

Still, this morning, I write about D.E.I.

The analogy in this blog headline is not meant to be positive. 

The opposite.

D.E.I., which stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” has become that football.

Originally conceived by left-wing Democrats, D.E.I. became a slogan, not a set of real commitments. 

Often, companies, trying to ingratiate themselves with the left, hired employees to be in charge of D.E.I. rather than, without a set of new hires, expressing fealty to the goals themselves.

Is that bad?  Not necessarily.  But hiring more staff may not always be the best way to support ethics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So, when the left-wing spoke, the right-wing folks in the Republican responded back — let D.E.I. die.  And, across the country, new employees in charge of D.E.I. have lost their jobs.  Plus, in another Trumpism, he and some of his acolytes chose to depict Harris as a D.E.I. candidate.

But, consider now the definition of each of the three words, which often get lost in the to’ing and fro’ing of political football.

• Diversity:  The practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, and sexual orientations.

• Equity:   The quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality. 

• Inclusion:  The act of including some in a group when they often are left out.

If I was running and a corporation or a government agency, I would support all three – diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But, I just would draw the line at joining a political movement.