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.

Over my years in professional and private life, I have tended to believe that information is power.

If you have more of it, good.

If you are lacking it, find it.

But, I have at least two caveats:

• First, the information you have must be accurate.

• Second, the information you have must be in context.

Think about that for just a moment.  For example, one Donald Trump believes he has ALL the information anyone needs, but it is inaccurate and out of context.  And it often is based lies.

So, it doesn’t matter, no matter how much he thinks it does.

In an AI overview, here is how Google rates information:

“Information is power, but it is only truly powerful when it is accurate, understood, and put into action.

“The classic saying ‘knowledge is power; was popularized by Sir Francis Bacon in 1597, and information serves as the raw fuel for that knowledge.

“Why information is power:

• Better Decisions:  Accurate data helps people and businesses monitor progress and solve complex problems.
• Influence:  Controlling key facts gives leaders, corporations, and governments leverage and authority.
• Awareness: Knowing the facts helps individuals mitigate risks and spot opportunities.

To this, I would context.  If you don’t place information in context, you lose.

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 often myself the question in this blog headline.

How does Donald Trump escape to much in his law-breaking?

It has bugged me for years and will do so until Trump leaves office, whenever that is.

Well, New Times columnist Maureen Dowd supplied some answers in recent writing in the Times.  Here are excerpts, which I include verbatim because they strike me as so accurate:

• It’s crazy to think about Donald Trump outrunning anything.  But in legal terms, the president is an Olympic-class sprinter.  He breaks the law so fast that the law is left in his orange dust.
• Trump is an outlaw. And our system was not built for an outlaw in the Oval.
• He zeros in on loopholes in the law and the system that are based on trust and the assumption that our leaders — and their families — will not be voracious scam artists.
• “The Constitution was built on this idea that the president would have enough decency and morality that they just wouldn’t run around exploiting the gaps,” said the Trump biographer Tim O’Brien.

“And for Trump, it’s like red meat.  This idea that Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn was profoundly wrong.  Donald Trump’s mentor was Fred from day one.  His father showed him how to exploit the government system, the legal system and business.  His whole worldview is built around the idea that you exploit systems for personal gain, and there’s nothing wrong with doing that because the world’s populated by sharks and you just have to be the biggest shark.”

• The White House is the People’s House.  Chief executives are transient tenants.  Its “stately simplicity,” President Teddy Roosevelt once said, “is an expression of the character of the period in which it was built and is in accord with the purposes it was designed to serve.”  Safeguarding it, he said, gave us continuity with our past.
• Trump was a builder, but he is such an egotist he can only view buildings — and reflecting pools — as reflections of himself.  When he built Trump Tower, he tore down the Art Deco friezes on Bonwit Teller despite promising them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Just so, he bulldozed the East Wing and tore up both of Jackie Kennedy’s gardens before Congress or historic preservationists had a chance to weigh in.
• The Supreme Court protects the outlandish outlaw by palavering about whether the architectural historian who brought case against him has “standing” to do so.  Yet shouldn’t any American have standing to challenge Trump’s desecrations?  Trump ludicrously blasted the preservationists fighting to stop the ballroom as “TREASONISTS.”
• As he casually divides and undermines America, he obsesses on using Krazy Glue to affix gold crap to the walls of the Oval Office or plotting to plant 47 maple trees in Lafayette Park to honor himself.  
• He got us into a war he has no clue how to get out of, yet spends his time mulling redecorating projects, gold gewgaws, his new helipad, and his replacement of the asphalt driveway at the White House with granite.
• There are so many pathetic scenes of the Supreme Court and Republicans in Congress caving in to Trump — on his war in Iran that he calls “small potatoes” and that J.D. Vance risibly claims is not a war; on his attempts to disenfranchise voters; on trying to hijack the Postal Service to obstruct those voting by mail; on plotting to sell of a chunk of Yosemite to a private developer; on allowing the killing of endangered wolves and the secret slaughter of wild horses; on trying to slap his name back on the Kennedy Center; on his petty, vindictive renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” in the midst of the U.S.-Canadian trade war, even though it’s not even named for the Canadian province.
• Now Trump is breaking ground for his solipsistic, Napoleonic Triumphal Arch — never mind that it lacks federal approval and that the gold angel on top might endanger planes flying in and out of Reagan National Airport.
• “And that’s the lesson of everybody who doesn’t understand who Donald Trump is,” O’Brien said. “He’s simply there to pick your pocket.”

So, the conclusion?  Trump is picking my pocket and everyone else’s.  The problem, of course, is that it will be tough for America to survive Trump’s sophistry if, that is, we can survive the next two years.

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.

As my wife and I read the Bible one day this week, a word jumped out at me:  The word “Salem.”

As we read Psalm, 76:2, there it was:  “His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place is in Zion.”

Does that mean that God lives in Salem, the city where we live.  No, but it sounds like it at first blush.

The word “Salem” is an ancient poetic name for Jerusalem, and it means “peace” or “peaceful.”

The Psalm 76 reference is one of two places in the Old Testament where the name of “Jerusalem” is abbreviated to “Salem.”  The others are in the New Testament.

Here is what Google says about the background for the word:

Hebrew Root:  The word comes from shalom, which means peace, completeness, or safety.

Connection to Jerusalem:  Bible scholars agree that “Salem” is an early or shortened name for Jerusalem.

Historical Link: It first appears in Genesis when Abraham meets Melchizedek, the “king of Salem.”

Poetic Pairing: In Psalm 76:2 (“His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion”), Salem is paired with Zion to emphasize that God chose this specific location as His spiritual home and a place of divine peace and protection.

The church we attend in Salem – Salem Alliance – uses the word to convey an important principle – we want Salem to be a “city that exists with peace with God.”

A great aspiration, one all of us should try to live out, both where we live – Salem – and where we travel.  Because all people – yes, ALL people – are actually or at least potentially “children of God.”

Shalom!

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.

As someone who likes words, a great phrase jumped at me as I read the New York Times.

Describing a candidate for governor of California, Steve Hilton, the writer said this:

“Hilton will have to complete one of the toughest acrobatic acts in politics — that of a loyal yet ambitious politician trying to quarantine himself from a deeply unpopular leader and kiss the ring at the same time.”

The target, of course, was Donald Trump who helped Hilton get past the primary election in his run for governor, but who could be an anchor around Hilton’s neck as the candidate tries to win in a “blue state,” California.

Thus, the “political acrobatics.”

Something similar could occur in Oregon as Christine Drazan tries to be the first Republican governor in Oregon in more than 40 years.

She’ll have to do her own political acrobatics.

On one hand, she’ll have to rail against political problems in the administration of current Governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat who is running for her second term.

On the other hand, in “blue Oregon,” she’ll have to figure out a way to distance herself from Trump and the terrible result of his “policies” – if he actually has policies – in Oregon.

It will be acrobatics of a different sort than what is facing Hilton to the south.

The definition of the word “acrobatics” adds perspective to the challenge facing Drazan.

“The performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination.”

It’s too early to say that Drazan will compete this balancing-act, but early polls suggest she has a chance.  So much so that Kotek sent out a recent fundraising letter asking for money because “she was behind.”

All this will become a bit clearer as we approach Labor Day.  It usually is about the time that Oregonians begin to consider politics and how they might vote in a couple months.

So, don’t bet on the outcome yet.  Just watch for the acrobatics.

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 Washington Post captured my attention this week in column touting one trait used by successful people – success in business or success in personal life.

This trait:  Don’t try to work or succeed on your own.  Find compatriots.

The good news is that it was a trait that accompanied me for most of my professional life.

As written by Angela Duckworth, here how the Post column started:

“I was once stranded with my 86-year-old mother in the Atlantic Ocean. We were on a snorkeling excursion off the coast of Miami, and the two of us were quickly swept behind our boat, my mother overtaken by the current.  In her panic, she’d inhaled water into both lungs and lost consciousness.

“Attempting to tug her to safety, I thrashed and kicked with all my might, but the ocean swallowed my efforts whole.  Lungs burning, legs heavy, I changed tactics.  I used one hand to keep her head above water and waved the other wildly in the air, shouting for help as I did.

“Ultimately, what saved my mother’s life that day, and mine, too, was not fighting the current on my own.  It was calling for help. The rescuers who came to our aid knew more than I did about how to handle this kind of emergency.  Together, they got my mom onto the boat deck, then to solid ground and finally into the hands of expert medical staff who could care for her properly.”

The account makes the point that acting alone is not the best approach.  Ask for help.  Work together.

In several of professional contexts, here are alliances from which I benefitted.:

• At the Oregon Department of Human Resources, I was one of three executives at the top of what then was the largest department in state government.  We worked well together because we each played our roles, mine and two others.

• At the Oregon Executive Department, I also managed to be near the top of the umbrella agency, which functioned like the COO of state government.  I worked closely with the director, with the top budget manager, and with the top personnel services manager.  We were a solid team.

• At a lobbying firm I co-founded, Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, I was a partner starting in 1990.  After solid alliances such as those listed above, it was hard for me to get started on my own in this company.  But, before long, realized I was not alone and found a good way to work with the other partners and my associates to make a success of our company, not to mention be better myself than I would have been on my own.

• Lobbying in a coalition:  I learned the value of coalitions quickly when I became a lobbyist years ago.  It was better to find friends than to go it alone.  Collaboration worked.

From the Post column, this conclusion:

“Without exception, every high performer I’ve studied credits a host of supporters for their success.  Research has found that a willingness to ask for help is crucial to achievement.:

It was for me.  So, I advise, don’t try to go it alone.  Find allies and friends.  You will be and do better because of it.