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 have tried to imagine:

• Being a staff member who writes speeches for Donald Trump.

• Being a staff member who prepares briefing memos for Donald Trump.

• Being a staff member who writes summaries of what Donald Trump says in public.

I wouldn’t want any of those jobs.  Impossible to work for a tyrant, Trump.

In my professional background, I performed all those tasks for major office holders for whom I worked, or for my clients during a 25-year career as a state lobbyist.

So it is that, with too much time on my hands the other day, I thought of the conundrums listed above.

At the time, my wife and I and 100 others were traveling down the Danube River in Eastern Europe in buses – yes buses – because in what has been labeled an “energy crisis,” the water was too low to allow our ship or any other ship to sail.

So, my thoughts wandered to the above.

Trump is mercurial.  He changes moods or behavior fast and without warning.  With that trait, no one could work for him.  He always knows best, so what happens to come into his head often spews out of his mouth, no matter who is hurt by what he says or does.

So, could a staff member help him?  Sure.  But he never listens.