PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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 perception conveyed by the headline for this blog was posited recently by Washington Post opinion writer Matt Bai.

He’s right and, in just a few words, he summarized the problem with Donald Trump.

You can provide lots of detail about Trump’s missteps as president, many of them intentional as he attempts to fool the public into believing “he is great.”

But, in the end, it’s this that is true:  He is a bad person.  As evidenced by his narcissism, which illustrates that, in his mind, he is involved as the centerpiece in every issue – and everyone else be damned…the American people, the late Senator John McCain, military veterans, anyone who cares about racial justice, anyone who accepts the notion that immigrants should have a chance for a better life in the U.S., etc.

Here’s how Bai started his column:

“A group calling itself Republican Voters Against Trump released a powerful video this week featuring an endorsement of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden by Michael Hayden, the retired Air Force general who headed the National Security Agency and the CIA under President George W. Bush.

“The most bracing part of Hayden’s message comes at the end.  ‘I absolutely disagree with some of Biden’s policies, but that’s not important,” he says.  ‘Biden is a good man. Donald Trump is not.’”

That one jolting line, Bai avers, gets to the bedrock issue of the 2020 campaign — and why the electorate could be poised to reject an incumbent president for the first time in 28 years – or, at least, that is my hope that voters reject Trump and the dishonest, inhumane, selfish policies he stands for.

Here are just a few instances of the “bad” Trump:

• He is a narcissist who believes everything revolves him.
• He blames victims for anything and everything, which is why he hates immigrants and continues to separate immigrant children from their families.
• He lies incessantly.  It is second nature to him.
• He eschews the work of being president as he avoids briefings, doesn’t read anything, and flies by the seat of his pants.
• He has made the pandemic worse by his own inaction.

Enough. 

This list could go on and on.  But let’s hope that, later this fall, we’ll have had enough of this worst of all American presidents.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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 other day journalist James Fallows warned against the media trend these days that translates all political issues into what he called “horse-racism.”

The question always is, “Who’s ahead.”  Rather, it should be than what policy issues are being discussed and what solutions are proposed, however flawed the discussion may be.

Great point.

And, thus, I say, we should not fall victim to “horsed-racism” in rating the now-several-days-old debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.

The question is not who won.  It is what did each say about issues that should affect our vote in just a few days and how did their expressions of their character affect our perception about who would be best as VP (though, of course, we vote essentially for the top of the ticket). 

The vice president debate was far removed from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.  While there were interruptions between the VP candidates, it was possible to glean a few nuggets from the encounter, not possible when Trump yelled throughout his contest.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the VP debate:

• Harris has a better answer on the pandemic.  Listen to scientists.  Don’t make things worse by violating every norm, as Trump has done, with nary a word of warning from Pence.

James Fallows in the Atlantic Magazine put it this way:  “With the first words of her first response, Kamala Harris presented what was essentially a prosecutor’s opening argument about mismanagement of the pandemic.  ‘’he American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,’ she began, looking not at Page (the moderator) or Pence, but directly at the camera. ‘Hundreds of thousands of people dead; millions infected; one in five American businesses closed; “frontline workers treated like sacrificial workers … They knew what was happening, and they didn’t tell you.’”

As an aside, there was an interesting time when a fly landed on Pence’s snow-white hair—and the vice president did not react at all.  Which prompted some analysts to suggest that the fly was a symbol — through all of the scandals and the crimes and the disasters of the past four years, Pence was the man who pretended not to notice just as he pretended not to notice the fly on his head. 

• Harris has a better answer on the economy.  Create taxes on the rich to prod the country out from under the pandemic, not to mention reducing the ever-growing federal deficit.  And, in response to Pence, Harris said the Biden-Harris Administration would not tax families if their income was under $400,000 annually.

• Harris has a better answer on racism.  It exists and it is past time to do something about it, a comment which resonates given her own status as a Black woman.

So, make a voting decision on the merits of the candidates, not on a notion of who’s ahead.

This footnote:

A recent, unprecedented editorial from the New England Journal of Medicine puts the case against the Trump administration clearly: “The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them. . . . Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed ‘opinion leaders’ and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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.

After watching Donald Trump do dumb stuff for more than three years now, as well as his harmful actions with the virus over the last few days, I often find myself wondering why he behaves with so much disdain for reputable norms.

One reason is that Trump is the very definition of a narcissist, one who sees everything through the lens of how it affects him and only him.

But Washington Post writer Charles Lane posited another reason in a column this week – the one depicted in the headline in this blog.

There is unifying theme to all actions by and involving Trump, Lane writes:  His belief that rules, both written and unwritten, do not apply to him.

Recent examples of Trump defying rules:

• Contrary to what presidents have done for roughly 40 years, Trump has declined to release his tax returns, thus defying an unwritten, but closely followed, rule.
• In the first debate between Trump and his Democrat challenger, Joe Biden, Trump refused to wear face coverings, a rule that had been set by debate co-sponsor and health overseer, the Cleveland Clinic. 
• During the debate, Trump repeatedly and aggressively interrupted Biden, violating rules for the debate that he and his campaign had accepted in advance.
• Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, as did several of his aides and Republican senators, possibly due to exposure during the White House gathering to announce Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.  The gathering was held despite rules against such events promulgated by the Centers for Disease Control.

Meanwhile, while Trump was convalescing – if that is what he was really doing —  Biden suspended negative advertising and publicly wished the president well, in conformity with this basic rule of etiquette:  Always express concern for the sick, even when it’s someone you oppose or, indeed, despise.

Columnist Lane continues:   “The contrast is clear, and it underscores Biden’s strongest selling point as a candidate; that, whatever else you can say about him, he is at least a normal, decent human being who would restore a sense of basic propriety to the highest office in the land.

“Never underestimate, though, the degree to which Trump’s supporters like him because of his rule-breaking — not despite it. That, in turn, reflects widespread sentiment that the U.S. political and economic systems are ‘rigged’ against people like them, and in favor of urban elites.  Through Trump, they fight back.”

*********

And this footnote, though it is\ not related to the rule-breaking issue. 

In a previous blog, I speculated that some folks who continue to support Trump despite his rule-breaking, do so because they may feel their 401K and other retirement funds will fare better under Republicans than Democrats.

Well, this letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal caught my attention.  It was from a retiree in Florida.

“While Grover Norquist is right to point out that perhaps half of Americans have money in the stock market, his selective use of statistics neglects to mention that for most people, that “stock ownership” is a very small sum, indeed.

“Bankrate.com calculates that the median stock ownership for workers 50-59 years old was just $65,000, not nothing, certainly, but not nearly the amount needed to cover expenses for retirement, including the exorbitant costs for health care and medicine, coming in just a few short years for this age group.

“And let’s not forget that over the past 50 years in America, a time during which Republicans and Democrats have held the White House for roughly the same number of years, both stock markets and wages have increased faster during Democrat administrations. I think my 401(k) would do better under a Democrat administration.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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 linother 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.

********

NOTE:  I first posted this blog a couple days ago, but, upon reflection, I may have left an impression that I agree with the points made in excerpts of a political column by Kimberley Strassel which are referenced in the original blog.

I don’t.

But I do think Strassel did a decent job of summarizing reasons why some people could still support Trump despite all of his missteps as president, most of the them intentional as he functions like what he once was — a reality TV host.

Her contention is that the administration of President Barack Obama, along with Congress, resorted too quickly to government action in response to nearly every problem.  That meant devaluing the role of the private sector, one of the best examples of which was establishment of ObamaCare,  which passed without one Republican vote in Congress.

Now, however, beyond the “too much government notion,” Trumpians may want to avoid the result of a return of the “Democrat elite” who they fear will tell them what to do all the time.

Perhaps, but I also think some Trump supporters remain in that camp out of selfishness – they want what they want when they want and believe Trump will give it to them.,  Part of this angst may apply to the status of their 401K and other retirement funds, but, during the Obama Administration, those funds performed well, so it would not be right to blame Obama and trust Trump on this issue.

So, if you read this again, know that I still wonder how it is possible for Trump supporters to continue to be Trump supporters, a proposition that takes on even more significance in the face of Trump continuing to flout virus protocols even as he contracted the disease and, without any apparent concern, exposed others to it.

*******

The question implied by this blog headline has stumped me for months, even years.

I have seen President Donald Trump do so much dumb stuff, amidst hundreds of lies, that I wonder why some of my friends can still support him.  How can that be?

So it was that a column by Wall Street Journal writer Kimberley Strassel caught my attention this weekend.  I found time to read it even as I and many other Americans worried about Trump’s health as he and others in his family and associates contended with positive results on the Covid-19 virus.

While I do not support Trump, I do wish him well in his recovery – a phrase I write with absolute honesty.

But back to Strassel’s commentary.  Here are excerpts from what she wrote under this headline:

The James Comey Election/His testimony this week was a reminder of everything that enrages Trump voters.

“The political elite remain puzzled—and in agony—over how Donald Trump could still be in the race.  A bullying debater!  A purveyor of mistruths!  A would-be autocrat!  How has our country come to this?

“The answer sat staring at them on a videolink this Wednesday, in the smug countenance of James Comey.

“This obvious truth will be missed by the left and the media, which continue to comfort themselves with the fiction that Trump won in 2016 by preying on the weak and ill-informed.  The opposite is true.  The businessman was propelled to office on the fury of those who had seen too much.

“They’d watched for decades as an insulated elected class—Democrat and Republican alike—broke promises, failed to solve problems, and blamed it on the system.

“These voters had watched the swamp take over—IRS targeters, self-righteous prosecutors, zealous regulators—armed with stunning powers and a mentality that they were entitled to make the rules, to tell the little people what was best for them.  Voters fumed over the double standard. Hillary Clinton deleted government emails with abandon, while a 77-year-old Navy veteran went to prison for building a pond in contravention of “navigable water” rules.

“… November’s vote for many Americans will be a choice between an administration that believes we the people should run Washington, and those who believe the swamp should rule the masses.”

Believe her or not, I think Strassel captures the fear of a return to Democrat control in Washington, D.C. – fears felt, but not always expressed, by my friends.  So, they hated the “government knows best” policies of the administration of President Barack Obama and fear his vice president, Joe Biden, now possibly the next president, will only cater to the “we know best” left.

“Those eight years,” Strassel writes, “featured plenty of swamp monsters — and don’t underestimate the number of Americans who fear a return to that world.  Lois Lerner harassing conservative non-profits.  Supervisors at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives loosing guns in Fast and Furious.  The Environmental Protection Agency minions who burned companies with ever-changing rules.  The Bureau of Land Management harassment of ranchers and farmers.  Energy Department officials steering stimulus payouts to Solyndra and other projects of Obama donors.”

Finally, this point.  Some of my friends rate a presidential administration on how their 401-K funds or other retirement funds fare. 

On that basis, the fact is the Obama years weren’t bad ones.  But, the fear of the Democrat elite persists, which means that Trump will get some votes from some of the fearful.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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 question implied by this blog headline has stumped me for months, even years.

I have seen President Donald Trump do so much dumb stuff, amidst hundreds of lies, that I wonder why some of my friends can still support him.  How can that be?

So it was that a column by Wall Street Journal writer Kimberley Strassel caught my attention this weekend.  I found time to read it even as I and many other Americans worried about Trump’s health as he and others in his family and associates contended with positive results on the Covid-19 virus.

While I do not support Trump, I do wish him well in his recovery – a phrase I write with absolute honesty.

But back to Strassel’s commentary.  Here are excerpts from what she wrote under this headline:

The James Comey Election/His testimony this week was a reminder of everything that enrages Trump voters.

“The political elite remain puzzled—and in agony—over how Donald Trump could still be in the race.  A bullying debater!  A purveyor of mistruths!  A would-be autocrat!  How has our country come to this?

“The answer sat staring at them on a videolink this Wednesday, in the smug countenance of James Comey.

“This obvious truth will be missed by the left and the media, which continue to comfort themselves with the fiction that Trump won in 2016 by preying on the weak and ill-informed.  The opposite is true.  The businessman was propelled to office on the fury of those who had seen too much.

“They’d watched for decades as an insulated elected class—Democrat and Republican alike—broke promises, failed to solve problems, and blamed it on the system.

“These voters had watched the swamp take over—IRS targeters, self-righteous prosecutors, zealous regulators—armed with stunning powers and a mentality that they were entitled to make the rules, to tell the little people what was best for them.  Voters fumed over the double standard. Hillary Clinton deleted government emails with abandon, while a 77-year-old Navy veteran went to prison for building a pond in contravention of “navigable water” rules.

“… November’s vote for many Americans will be a choice between an administration that believes we the people should run Washington, and those who believe the swamp should rule the masses.”

Believe her or not, I think Strassel captures the fear of a return to Democrat control in Washington, D.C. – fears felt, but not always expressed, by my friends.  So, they hated the “government knows best” policies of the administration of President Barack Obama and fear his vice president, Joe Biden, now possibly the next president, will only cater to the “we know best” left.

“Those eight years,” Strassel writes, “featured plenty of swamp monsters — and don’t underestimate the number of Americans who fear a return to that world.  Lois Lerner harassing conservative non-profits.  Supervisors at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives loosing guns in Fast and Furious.  The Environmental Protection Agency minions who burned companies with ever-changing rules.  The Bureau of Land Management harassment of ranchers and farmers.  Energy Department officials steering stimulus payouts to Solyndra and other projects of Obama donors.”

Finally, this point.  Some of my friends rate a presidential administration on how their 401-K funds or other retirement funds fare. 

On that basis, the fact is the Obama years weren’t bad ones.  But, the fear of the Democrat elite persists, which means that Trump will get some votes from some of the fearful.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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.

Just for the sake of the argument, guess what happens if President Donald Trump is incapacitated or dies from the Covid-19 virus?

And, guess what happens if Vice-President Mike Pence suffers the same fate at nearly the same time.

Guess who becomes president?

The answer:  Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi becomes president.

That’s the succession spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

Imagine what Republicans would think or say if that happened!

Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves this morning.

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, led the way in what should be our main instinct this morning, the morning when we leaned that Trump and his wife, Melania, had contracted the virus.

We should wish for a speedy recovery for the Trumps.

Here is what the Bidens said:

“Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery.  We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”

Now, that’s statesmanship!

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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.

Columnist George Will achieves two objectives in what he wrote this morning in the Washington Post:

• He advocates the point in the headline in this blog – cancel the remaining presidential debates because they serve no useful purpose for the country.
• More than any columnist writing today, Will has the ability to string good words together to make solid points.

On the latter, consider only this example from the lead to Will’s column:

“The putrescence of America’s public life was pitilessly displayed Tuesday when, for 98 minutes whatever remains of the nation’s domestic confidence and international stature shriveled like a brittle autumn leaf.”

Note the word “putrescence.”  Not one most of us would find a way to use every day.  The definition of the word is just this:  Putrid matter.

That’s what the debate was – putrid.

Will goes on:  “Most Donald Trump utterances resemble turbid creeks that are silty at their sources and trickle away into mud. He might finish his presidential term without ever speaking a complete sentence — subject, object, predicate.  Oliver Wendell Holmes, who characterized Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose movement as one of “strenuous vagueness, ”survived Antietam, but might have expired straining to decipher Tuesday’s cascade of falsehoods, rudeness and syntactical tangles.

“Some viewers, their minds already closed concerning their presidential choice, watched the debate the way some people watch stock-car races:  In hopeful expectation of carnage.  They were not disappointed.”

So, with Will, I advocate the two remaining debates be scrapped.  It will not be possible to change debate rules for at least two reasons:  First, Donald Trump will not abide by the rules, even of he agrees to them in advance; and, second, all he will do is interrupt and lie his way through 90 minutes.

Some say turn off the microphones when there are interruptions.  Imagine what would happen next – Trump would simply yell and scream without amplification.

Beyond this, how did the world view the first “debate?”

Not well.

According to the New York Daily News:

“The Times of India  — the best-selling English language paper in that 1.35 million person nation — wrote ‘The US embarrassed itself before the world for 100 minutes.’

“That Indian outlet felt Trump controlled the momentum and kept Biden off-balance, but the showdown had no winner.  It wrote the event was marked by ‘angry exchanges and invective, culminating in implicit threats of election-linked racial conflagration by President Donald Trump.’

“The Times of India concluded that ultimately ‘America lost’ on Tuesday.

“Great Britain’s The Guardian agreed the debate was a loss for the U.S. on the whole and called it ‘a bad night for the world.’”

So, let’s avoid losing again.  Scrap the debates and get about the business of voting.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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.

Why do I feel compelled this morning to add my voice to those commenting on last night’s “presidential debate?”

Who knows?  But, at least by emoting for a moment, I may feel better.

One commentator, after the 90-minute brawl, actually used this phrase on live TV:  “What a s___show!”

Agreed.

It was not a debate.  And, if nothing changes, the next two ought to be cancelled by the Commission on Presidential Debates.  There is nothing to be gained by giving Trump another stage on which to emote.

From the New York Times:

“ From the opening moments, President Trump repeatedly interrupted Joe Biden and told lies — about Trump’s own tax payments, Biden’s health care plan, the environment and voting by mail.  As a result, last night’s debate was almost impossible to watch and did little to shed light on the biggest issues facing the country or the substantive differences between the candidates.”

In past debates, it is possible to remember certain phrases that have stood the test of time – and illustrated points worth considering in those previous elections.

For me, one of the best was when vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen said, of his opponent, Dan Quayle, “Sir, you are no Jack Kennedy,” which illustrated Quayle’s lack of experience.

Or, in 1980, the only debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan produced a memorable line from Reagan: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

That line was so good that it was used in many later debates.

This time, if there was a memorable phrase, it might have been when Donald Trump declined to decry white supremacy.  Here is the way Washington Post analyst Dana Milbank described the point:

“When he did produce more than a taunt or an insult, Trump’s sentiments were either odd (“the forest floors are loaded up with trees”) or dark.  He refused to condemn violence by white supremacists and hinted that he might rely upon their violence if he loses the election.  He offered an ominous message to the white-nationalist group Proud Boys:  ‘Stand back and stand by.’”

As one voter, I have had more than enough of Trump’s diatribes.  Time to vote for Biden – and hope there are no more “debates” before being able to do so.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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.

There is no better blog for me today than to post, intact, the Washington Post editorial this morning endorsing Joe Biden for president.

Those who wrote did solid research, as well as used good words, to verify that Biden would be far better as president and the leader of the free world than the person who now occupies the Oval Office.

So, as soon as it is possible, I intend to vote for Biden and his running mate, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

*********

Joe Biden for president

Opinion by the Washington Post Editorial Board

September 28, 2020

In order to expel the worst president of modern times, many voters might be willing to vote for almost anybody.

Fortunately, to oust President Trump in 2020, voters do not have to lower their standards. The Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years.

Those challenges have been, to varying degrees, created, exacerbated or neglected by the incumbent: the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more lives in this country than anywhere else in the world; rising inequality and racial disparities; a 21st-century, high-tech authoritarianism ascendant in the world, with democracy in retreat; a planet at risk due to human-caused climate change.

Underlying them all is the question of whether U.S. democracy is any longer capable of meeting even one such challenge, let alone a host of them. Here is where Mr. Trump has done the most damage — and where Mr. Biden is almost uniquely positioned for the moment. He would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government.

In contrast to Mr. Trump’s narcissism, Mr. Biden is deeply empathetic; you can’t imagine him dismissing wounded or fallen soldiers as “losers.” To Mr. Trump’s cynicism, Mr. Biden brings faith — religious faith, yes, but also faith in American values and potential.

In place of Mr. Trump’s belittling and demonizing of opponents and allies alike, Mr. Biden offers a deep commitment to finding common ground in service to making government work for the greatest number. He has demonstrated that commitment in reaching across the aisle to Republicans, and also — most recently — in bringing unity to the Democratic Party without compromising his own fundamental convictions.

It is telling that when Sen. John McCain, a Republican, was awarded the Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center in 2017, the year before his death, he asked Mr. Biden to make the presentation. On that occasion, McCain recalled their service together in the Senate, where Mr. Biden built a record of accomplishment as chair of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees.

“We didn’t always agree on the issues,” McCain said. “We often argued — sometimes passionately. But we believed in each other’s patriotism and the sincerity of each other’s convictions.…

“We believed in our mutual responsibility to help make the place work and to cooperate in finding solutions to our country’s problems,” McCain continued. “We believed in our country and in our country’s indispensability to international peace and stability, and to the progress of humanity.”

Mr. Trump’s negative example has demonstrated how essential in a president are decency, empathy and respect for other human beings. Mr. Biden brings deep reservoirs of each.

But those qualities are not sufficient. A president also needs toughness, governing experience and good judgment.

Does Mr. Biden have what it takes? This year’s campaign offers telling evidence.

Mr. Biden took on some 20 aspirants, many of them considered to be rising stars. To considerable chatter about his past failed campaigns, he finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire. He had almost no campaign money, little staff and, if you believed many of the pundits, no chance.

Mr. Biden didn’t believe the pundits. He stuck to his game plan, took his fight to South Carolina and won — there, and then almost everywhere on Super Tuesday. In defeating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), he showed that the party hadn’t moved as far left as some were saying — and as Mr. Trump continues, baselessly, to allege.

Mr. Biden then oversaw a vice-presidential selection process that was free of leaks and unnecessary drama. He chose as partner the woman who, after the fact, almost everyone agreed was the most qualified, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California. In setting aside her stinging attacks on him during the primary contest, Mr. Biden showed that he will govern based on merit, not grudge.

All of that bodes well for a Biden presidency, but obviously voters do not have to judge by this year’s performance alone. Mr. Biden’s well of experience is far deeper.

If he takes the oath in the midst of the pandemic’s second wave, as is quite possible, with the economy in a tailspin, we can be confident Mr. Biden will rise to the occasion. Why? Because when President Barack Obama and he took office in 2009, the nation was in a similarly frightening tailspin. Mr. Obama trusted his vice president to work with Congress to deliver a bipartisan recovery package and then to help administer it, helping save America’s auto industry and the economy more broadly.

Mr. Biden’s competence and honor are more important in this cycle than any particular stand on any particular issue.

But on the issues, too, Mr. Biden offers the nation a welcome, positive vision. It is a vision that refutes both Mr. Trump’s preposterous slander of Mr. Biden as a “socialist” and the fears of some on the left that Mr. Biden is aiming only at a restoration of the pre-Trump status quo.

The slander is not surprising. Mr. Trump — with few accomplishments in his first term and no agenda for his second — was bound to run a negative, dishonest campaign. But in fact Mr. Biden has not succumbed to the wishes of the far left of his party.

At the same time, the world is very different today than it was in 2008 — the challenge from China sharper, the menace of climate change more imminent — and Mr. Biden has shaped his agenda accordingly.

On climate change, where Mr. Trump denigrates scientists and dismisses warnings about a grave threat to humanity, just as he did with covid-19, Mr. Biden understands that no issue is more fundamental to the long-term prosperity of the nation or the world.

He would make it a priority of his administration. Yet, resisting more strident voices on the left, he has declined to use the climate emergency to justify massive, unrelated programs, such as universal federal job guarantees or single-payer health care. Instead, he offers a credible plan for the right goal — making the country carbon-neutral by mid-century.

Mr. Biden similarly has shaped an ambitious and reform-minded criminal justice agenda for today’s world. He would set minimum standards for use of force and condition federal funding on meaningful police reforms. His proposed $20 billion competitive grant program would incentivize states and localities to shift dollars from incarceration to crime prevention.

Far from embracing socialism, Mr. Biden would better position the United States as a capitalist competitor to China. He would do so by rolling back the least defensible of Mr. Trump’s upwardly skewed tax cuts and investing more in education and research; cooperating on trade with allies, rather than spraying tariffs at South Korea, Europe and Canada; and once again making the United States a welcoming destination for the brightest scientists and potential entrepreneurs around the world.

On foreign policy, Mr. Biden offers an enormously positive change from the Trump administration, simply by promising to rebuild long-standing U.S. alliances and the global leadership that Mr. Trump has willfully disrupted.

Mr. Biden rightly observes that the struggle “of democracy and liberalism” to defeat “fascism and autocracy” is not over, but “will define our future.” “Democracy” he has written, “is under more pressure than at any time since the 1930s” — and Mr. Trump “seems to be on the other team, taking the word of autocrats while showing disdain for democrats.” Mr. Biden would convene a “Summit for Democracy” to unite democracies in “fighting corruption, defending against authoritarianism and advancing human rights.” He would rebuild relations with NATO countries and help them stiffen defenses against Russia. He would end Mr. Trump’s appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin and coddling of Arab dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Biden has a sober view of American power and its limitations; like Mr. Trump he speaks of stopping “endless wars” and bringing U.S. military forces home from the Middle East. But Mr. Biden rejects Mr. Trump’s self-defeating “America first” principle and would return to tackling global challenges in partnership with other nations. He would rejoin the Paris accord on climate change and seek to revive the nuclear deal with Iran. He would reverse Mr. Trump’s senseless withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and commit the United States to multilateral efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

That fundamental difference of approach may be most important when it comes to China, which is likely to pose the biggest foreign policy challenge of the coming years. Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump promise to “get tough” with Beijing and to combat its mercantilism, thefts of technology and expansive claims in the South China Sea. However, Mr. Biden’s approach would be values-based, not erratic and transactional. He would work with allies to confront China’s abusive behaviors while seeking cooperation where interests converge, such as on climate change and health security.

Mr. Biden’s foreign policy offers insight into his technology policy as well: He would stand up for this country’s belief in freedom and openness against the Chinese brand of surveillance authoritarianism, and he would fight to purge foreign interference by Russia and others in elections rather than deny such interference exists. Mr. Biden promises to take a tougher line on so-called Big Tech in antitrust enforcement than his predecessor — but he would do so based on law and evidence, not whim and favoritism.

Democracy is at risk, at home and around the world. The nation desperately needs a president who will respect its public servants; stand up for the rule of law; acknowledge Congress’s constitutional role; and work for the public good, not his private benefit.

Just as desperately, it needs a president with the know-how and experience to show that values and results can go together.

It is fortunate to have, in Joe Biden, a candidate who can lead an administration that is both honorable and successful.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This 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 of 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 headline in this blog may represent a search for good news amidst all of the bad owing to the virus and forest fires.

But, the news below also is true.

A story in the Wall Street Journal this week appeared under this headline:

GOLF, THE OFFICIAL SPORT OF SOCIAL DISTANCE, HAD ITS BEST SUMMER IN DECADES

Here is how the reporter, Rick Maese, started his story:

“Back in those foggy early days of the pandemic, as nearly every part of American life stopped on a dime, golf course superintendents pulled out their flagsticks, parked their carts and closed their pro shops.

“Golf is a discretionary expense for most, and as the novel coronavirus threatened both lives and livelihoods, no one in the industry knew when it would be safe for golfers to come back to the course or who would be returning when it was safe.

Suzy Whaley, president of the Professional Golfers Association of America, said the virus had the potential “to shut down an $85 billion industry.”

She adds:  “We immediately knew we had to come up with some solutions for our members.”

Banding together, the industry lobbied lawmakers, worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop revised rules and guidelines, and then worked to bring the nation’s sprawling network of 14,500 golf courses back into play.

After surviving the spring, the golf industry is thriving, coming off a stretch of bustling activity with little precedent.

Golfers played 10 million more rounds in July than they did a year ago, a 20 per cent increase.  It’s the largest bump recorded since Golf Datatech, the sport’s leading market research company, started tracking the monthly numbers 20 years ago.  Play was up 14 per cent year over year in June and 6 per cent in May.

Though analysts say some 20 million rounds were lost during March, April and May, the booming summer has more than made up for that deficit and rounds are up 3 per cent from last year.

Meanwhile, equipment sales are booming, too.  They reached $388.6 million in July, the highest single month that Golf Datatech has recorded since it began tracking retail sales in 1997.

The Wall Street Journal reporter adds this:  “It’s quite a turnaround for the entire industry — the game’s busiest stretch following some of the slowest months that golf has seen.  And, weather-depending, the stubborn pandemic may only help golf’s boom last deeper into fall.  Those around the game say golf is particularly well-suited for pandemic life, offering players space, exercise and a much-needed distraction.

In mid-March, golf’s most influential organizations — including the World Golf Foundation, the Professional Golfers Association Tour, the Professional Golf Association of America, the United States Golf Association, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association — teamed up to form Back2Golf.

Pooling their resources, they reached out to governors in all 50 states to keep courses open, pleading the sport’s case as a pandemic-perfect outlet.

The sport started stirring to life.  Many courses started booking tee times in May, and, in June, the PGA Tour was the first major U.S. sport to return to play.  The industry almost immediately noticed there was a pent-up need.

Perhaps most encouraging for industry analysts are all the new players who have either discovered the game or returned after a long layoff.  The National Golf Foundation estimates the number of junior golfers (ages 6-17) could increase by 20 per cent, or 500,000 golfers, by year’s end. The number of new or returning players was up 20 per cent in the first half of 2020.

The course where I play most of the time, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon, also has noted a substantial increase in play, as have many golf courses in the Northwest.

On many days of decent weather, there have been more than 150 players on Illahe, many of them new to the game or returning after a long absence. 

It used to be that tee times were only available until 2:30 in the afternoon, after which it would be first-come, first-served.  Now tee times are taken until about 6 p.m. to acknowledge all of the new players.

Further, the Oregon Golf Association has done an excellent job of running tournaments for junior and regular amateur players – excellence in the form of restrictions related to the Covid virus that have protected the health and safety of players…as well as providing a sense of normalcy during what clearly has been an abnormal period.

For me, golf has provided a bit of solace amidst the virus, political tension, Black lives protests and the worst forest fire season on record.  Play well, I say to myself.