The Hoover Institution’s library and tower will be closed on Tuesday morning, February 14, 2012, due to electrical work. The Hoover archives will be open during the process. The library and tower will reopen at 11:30 am on February 14, 2012. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Past episodes
About Uncommon Knowledge

For more than a decade the Hoover Institution has been producing Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, a series hosted by Hoover fellow Peter Robinson as an outlet for political leaders, scholars, journalists, and today’s big thinkers to share their views with the world. Guests have included a host of famous figures, including Paul Ryan, Henry Kissinger, Antonin Scalia, Rupert Murdoch, Newt Gingrich, and Christopher Hitchens, along with Hoover fellows such as Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz.

Uncommon Knowledge takes fascinating, accomplished guests, then sits them down with me to talk about the issues of the day,” says Robinson, an author and former speechwriter for President Reagan. “Unhurried, civil, thoughtful, and informed conversation– that’s what we produce. And there isn’t all that much of it around these days.”

The show started life as a television series in 1997 and is now distributed exclusively on the web over a growing network of the largest political websites and channels. To stay tuned for the latest updates on and episodes related to Uncommon Knowledge, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

April 23, 2007 | Recorded on April 23, 2007

How Can The GOP Get Its Groove Back?

Governor Haley Barbour

Governor Haley Barbour reflects on the current state of the Grand Old Party and what it will take for it to regain its prominence in American politics. What did the GOP do right in the mid-nineties to capture a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years, and what is it doing wrong today? And how can the party adapt the conservatism of Ronald Reagan to the current issues of the day? Video transcripts

Chapters:

01:17  Congress—What the GOP got right in 1994 and wrong in 2006
07:09  The Gipper versus Dubya
12:39  The GOP and the land of Dixie
18:29  The GOP, race, and immigration
22:17  Too much success?
28:49  Practical politics