Mitch Daniels would have added some much-needed substance to the national dialogue. His reason for not running for president is a sad commentary on the sideshow our elections have become.I spoke with Indiana’s popular chief executive last week. We discussed how he had turned a $200 million deficit into a $1.3 billion surplus without raising taxes. And how his insistence on drastic spending cuts ha

“White Americans See Anti-White Bias on the Rise.” That was a headline in the Wall Street Journal in May, and more than any other domestic index or statistic, it’s that sentiment that should worry you about America’s future.While many commentators saw Barack Obama’s election as signaling the emergence of a post-racial America, it might one day be seen instead as the symbolic moment all Americans b

WASHINGTON ― As head bartender of the National Press Club, “Big Jack” Kujawski had a prime vantage point to witness the sad demise of print journalism over the past 25 years. To say he didn’t like what he saw is an understatement of star magnitude.When Kujawski arrived at the NPC in the mid-1980s, its 14th floor bar overlooking the historic Willard Hotel was crowded with hard-drinking and heavy-sm

ISLAMABAD ― Large events sometimes have unintended strategic consequences. This is turning out to be the case following the killing of Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, a military-dominated town near Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.The fact that the world’s most wanted man lived for a half-dozen years in a large house within spitting distance of Pakistan Military Academy, where the countr

Prosecutors investigating the irregularities at Busan Savings Bank abruptly suspended their probe Friday. They sent testifiers home and walked out of their offices. They did not come to work on Saturday or Sunday either. It was a protest against a decision by lawmakers to abolish the prosecution’s most powerful investigation unit ― the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ O

The government has come up with a set of measures to curb the deeply entrenched practice of high-ranking bureaucrats descending into high-paying private-sector jobs immediately after their retirement. The package allows ministers, vice ministers, assistant ministers and heads of provincial governments to take a private sector job immediately after retirement. But it bans them for a year after reti

Credit downgrades can elicit fascinating reactions. Take a January move by Standard & Poor’s to cut Japan’s rating to the same level as China’s. I expected the backlash to come from Tokyo. Instead, it was the Chinese who were aghast. Every Chinese official I’ve met since is bewildered that 10 percent growth and $3 trillion of currency reserves don’t buy a better grade than the AA- China shares wit

For a man who billed himself as the CEO president, Lee Myung-bak of South Korea sure seems to lack business sense. In February 2008, voters turned to Lee, the former chief executive officer of several Hyundai Group businesses, to see through the reforms needed to break the economic gridlock. Who better to drive change than a guy famed for bulldozing the competition? Buyer’s remorse is setting in a

Now that Beijing has decided to send 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects back to Taiwan, the issue of the sovereignty of our country in handling their case is being raised again. Democratic Progressive Party leaders from their chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on down have accused the administration of selling out our sovereignty by letting the Philippines deport the suspects to the People’s Republic of China earli

Education equality is the foundation for more development opportunities for rural children in underdeveloped rural areas. It is an area that requires more attention from the government and society. State Councilor Liu Yandong called for more educational resources for the underdeveloped central and western regions to realize education equality when she visited the poverty-stricken rural areas in No

Leaders of the Group of Eight wealthiest industrialized nations pledged over the last weekend to help Egypt and Tunisia with billions of dollars in aid, fearing that economic stagnation could undermine the transition to democracy. A joint communique produced by the G8 meeting promised $20 billion, but the breakdown on how much each of the eight countries will provide is not yet known. The G8 compr