Commentaries

Enjoy a selection of my commentaries below. To see the full listing of commentaries, please click here.

Global enterprise has rural roots

In the back room of a small paint store in rural Pullman, Wash., business development specialists are using a computer and fax machine to try to sell local agricultural equipment and expertise in the global marketplace. It’s a grassroots operation that works. The non-profit, bootstraps initiative, AgriTechnics International, was established in April by the Palouse…

New Majority Shows Its Might

The culture of Washington is dominated by questions of “who’s up, who’s down; who’s in, who’s out,” to which most normal Americans say, “Who cares?” We saw it during the election: Media reports were dominated by misleading polls (what happened to Clinton’s 15-point margin?), mindless reports on misleading polls and vacuous assessments of the “who’s…

Alexander plays a winning tune

Can “little platoons” of Americans win battles the “big battalions” of the federal government have been losing? Lamar Alexander intends to find out. The soft-spoken, mild-mannered man from Maryville, Tenn., joins U.S. Sens. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Phil Gramm, R-Texas, as one of the GOP’s Big Three presidential contenders. But unlike the acerbic Senate majority…