Michael Barone: The Oracle Speaks

Uncommon Knowledge is a first-rate interview program on the American experience. Sponsored by the Hoover Institution and hosted by Peter Robinson, the program, I believe, has become the best of its kind now that C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb has ended his rigorous interview programming on that network. This week, Robinson interviews Michael Barone, who has forgotten more about American politics than most of us remember. The interview began receiving notice immediately after the first part was posted on Monday. Here's your link.

Barone photograph: Gage Skidmore

The Speech

In October 1964, I was a freshman at the University of Maryland. For years, I had always hoped to live in or near Washington and take in the Potomac Fever that swirled around the seat of American politics. In that year - the first of eleven years in DC - my presidential candidate was none other than Barry Goldwater. He would go on to lose the election the following month, but his campaign did give the American voters an opportunity to see Ronald Reagan launch his political career on a national stage. The vector has become known as "The Speech." I never heard it. In fact, I never read it, but Scott Johnson's blog entry on Powerline gives all of us a chance to explore this important event. The link includes a video of the speech and links to the text and a five part discussion on Peter Robinson's Uncommon Knowledge. Robinson is joined by Mark Steyn and Rob Long. For political junkies, it doesn't get much better.

The Berlin Wall Comes Down: 11-9-1989

Scott Johnson channeled my thoughts perfectly in his post on the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago today. It would be impossible for me to add to it, so I'll simply supply a link here.

Johnson uses Peter Robinson's recollection of the event for the body of his post. Robinson is a key player in the story as he wrote the famous "tear down this wall" speech for his president. Readers already know of my great respect for Robinson. If you have not read his memoir, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, please add it to your reading list.

Robinson Interviews Kessler On Obama's Liberalism

Charles Kessler edits the Claremont Review of Books, a must read publication for center-right constitutionalist thinkers. This week, Peter Robinson interviews him at NRO TV's Uncommon Knowledge. May the Hoover Institution be forever blessed for funding Robinson and Uncommon Knowledge, two of the top offerings on "television" today.

Going Bananas

Peter Robinson is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A generation ago - the guy was barely out of college - he wrote speeches for President Ronald Reagan. One of those speeches contained the line,"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Reagan's advisors though the line a bit harsh and urged him to delete it or at least use some less threatening language. Reagan ignored them and, on that summer day in Berlin in 1987, delivered the simple line that would define his foreign policy in history and hasten the end of the Soviet Union. It also gave Robinson quite a career boost.

The man behind those famous words has an enlightening column at Forbes.com this week where he describes personality, nationalization and censorship as disturbing trends within the Obama administration. In short, he wonders if we are on the road to becoming a banana republic. It's "must read."

As an aside, let me point out one of Robinson's books, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (2003). It's well-written, fast-paced, full of powerful observations and wonderful anecdotes about Reagan as well as a window into the reality of working in the White House. You'll most likely enjoy reading it and you'll get some insight into Robinson, a man whose career bears watching.

Speaking of watching, one of my greatest regrets was not being able to follow the Reagan presidency as it happened. From early 1981 until he left office in 1989, my wife and I were producing and raising children, including one set of twins. From what I know of Reagan, he would have enjoyed our stories and made some entertaining jokes about them. But life for us at the time was no joke; I worked full-time at the office and at home. As full-time parents, we simply couldn't carve out the hours to fully appreciate Reagan in action. Of course, a generation of aging does add valuable perspectives to any history, but nothing could replace the joie de vivre of the here and now. We can, however, come as close as possible to the way things were through the sensitive observations of writers like Peter Robinson. Too bad all our information sources aren't like that.

Thanks to Power Line - and you can read more on the subject.