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.

It used to be that having the word “felon” appended to your name would have disqualified you for trying to be president of the United States.

When Donald Trump is sworn in January 20, it will be the first time the word “felon” has moved into the Oval Office.  On his back.

Here is the way New York Times political reporter Peter Baker put it this week:

“A big economic package, mass deportations, maybe even some invasions of other countries.   Oh, and one more item.  ‘I’ll do my little thing tomorrow,’ a busy President-elect Donald J. Trump mentioned the other night.

“That little thing was the first criminal sentencing of an American president.  That little thing was confirmation that Trump, just 10 days later, would become the first president to move into the White House with a rap sheet.  That little thing is the latest shift in standards that once governed high office.

“Trump does not really consider it a little thing, of course, given how strenuously he sought to avoid Friday’s sentencing for 34 felony counts in his hush money case.  But to a remarkable degree, he has succeeded in making it a little thing in the body politic.  What was once a pretty-much-guaranteed disqualifier for the presidency is now just one more political event seen through a partisan lens.

After all, no one seemed shocked after Friday’s sentencing in New York.  While Trump was spared jail time or financial penalties, he effectively had the word ‘felon’ tattooed on his record for all time unless a higher court overturns the conviction.  But that development was already baked into the system.  Voters knew last fall that Trump had been found guilty by a jury of his peers, and enough of them decided it was either illegitimate or not as important as other issues.”

Baker is right, again.

American voters knew most of this before they elevated Trump to the presidency…again.

A bad tale for America.