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 Wall Street Journal produced a long, front-page story about how President Joe Biden not only had “gatekeepers,” but some of those officials shielded him from many interactions that could have revealed his age-related frailty.

In short, these advisors thought Biden was so old that he couldn’t function normally in many of the usual roles of a president.  So, rather than just gatekeeping, they protected him.

That fact became abundantly clear when Biden couldn’t produce understandable sentences during the televised campaign debate against Donald Trump.

Losing the debate turned out to be the major reason why Biden finally decided not to run for re-election.

The Journal’s story about the tactics represented solid journalism.  It started this way:

“Presidents always have gatekeepers.  But in Biden’s case, the walls around him were higher and the controls greater, according to Democrat lawmakers, donors and aides who worked for Biden and other administrations.  There were limits over who Biden spoke with, limits on what they said to him, and limits around the sources of information he consumed.”

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote this about how Biden’s staff protected him, though, unfortunately, she did not mention the name of a chief of staff who deserves debit for playing this game:

“The story is the decline of Joe Biden’s mental acuity, a word we use because it sounds both clinical and polite, and by which we mean the president has been in apparent cognitive decline for some years, perhaps since before taking office, and wasn’t fully up to the job.  His family and friends, top White House staff, and other administration officials covered it up.  Some no doubt thought his presidency was good for the country and some, perhaps, good for them.”

“Gatekeeper” is nothing if not an interesting word.

Without having to define it, the word conveys reality.  Stop at the gate unless someone lets you in.

Every high government official, from presidents to governors and others, have “gatekeepers” – those who allow certain folks in to see the top official and those who bar the doors.

Gatekeeping is not always negative.  It’s just the reality for busy public officials unless, of course, gatekeepers leave the gates mostly closed.

The Wall Street Journal story reminded me of an excellent book I read by Chris Whipple entitled, “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.”

Mr. Google describes the book as follows:

“The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions — and inactions — have defined the course of our country.

“What do Dick Cheney and Rahm Emanuel have in common?  Aside from polarizing personalities, both served as chief of staff to a president of the United States — as did Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, and a relative handful of others.

[Here, the Journal could have or should have mentioned James Baker who served as chief of staff for two presidents and made the position into an art form, resulting in a book about his roles called “The Man Who Ran Washington” – see below.]

“The chiefs of staff, often referred to as ‘the gatekeepers,’ wield tremendous power in Washington and beyond.  They decide who is allowed to see the president, negotiate with Congress to push the president’s agenda, and — most crucially — enjoy unparalleled access to the leader of the free world.  Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks.”

To produce his book, Whipple conducted interviews with 17 living chiefs and two former presidents.

More from Mr. Google:

“Award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity.  In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker’s expert managing of the White House, the press, and Capitol Hill paved the way for the Reagan Revolution — and, conversely, how Watergate, the Iraq War, and even the bungled Obamacare rollout might have been prevented by a more effective chief. 

“Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, ‘The Gatekeepers’ offers an essential portrait of the toughest job in Washington.”

I read the book with a lot of interest a few years ago because, if nothing else, I am a political junkie.  I love to see how government works or doesn’t work.  And to achieve this, I often rely on solid journalism by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

The chief for Ronald Reagan named above – Baker – also worked for George Bush, the elder, and was the person with the elder Bush as he died, thus illustrating how close they were in life and in death. 

I was not a gatekeeper in Washington, D.C., but I did play a similar role on a couple occasions in Oregon, including for the governor I mentioned in this blog introduction.  Never with the weight of presidential issues on my hands, but, still, enough to enable me to provide the following posits for what an excellent gatekeeper should do, which stands in direct contrast to what top-level operatives did for Biden.

The posits:

• Of course, given that presidents, governors and others high up in government cannot see everyone, gatekeepers guard the door as to who gets in to see the leader.

• However, gatekeepers should not guard the door by allowing only those in who agree with the leader they represent. 

• Instead, gatekeepers should give the leader for whom they work a chance to hear what he or she needs to hear from those who, respectfully, disagree and have something important to say about that disagreement.

• Gatekeepers should take initiative to book appointments for leaders that will advance the administration’s agenda…which means meeting with folks who may not ask for a meeting, but should be consulted.

No doubt, on a subject this deep and wide, I’ll think of other posits, but for now, that’s enough.