Robinson, Peter

Peter Mark Robinson (born April 18, 1957<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>) is an American author, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_fellow" title="Research fellow" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">research fellow</a>, television host and former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speechwriter" title="Speechwriter" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">speechwriter</a> for then-Vice President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush" title="George H.W. Bush" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">George H.W. Bush</a> and President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Ronald Reagan</a>. He is currently the host of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Knowledge" title="Uncommon Knowledge" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Uncommon Knowledge</a>, an interview show by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford" title="Stanford" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Stanford</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Institution" title="Hoover Institution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Hoover Institution</a>. He is also a research fellow at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Institution" title="Hoover Institution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Hoover Institution</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); padding: 7px; font-size: 13px; display: table; zoom: 1; color: rgb(37, 37, 37);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="color: black; background-image: none; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; font-size: 13px; display: inline; line-height: 1.3;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.5em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#Early_life_and_education" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1 Early life and education</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#Speechwriter" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2 Speechwriter</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#Research_fellow" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">3 Research fellow</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#Personal_life_and_writings" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">4 Personal life and writings</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#References" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">6 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3;">Early life and education<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Early life and education" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2>Robinson grew up in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal,New_York" title="Vestal, New York" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Vestal, New York</a>. He attended <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_College" title="Dartmouth College" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Dartmouth College</a> from 1975 to 1979, where he was a member of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Kappa_Kappa" title="Kappa Kappa Kappa" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Kappa Kappa Kappa</a>, and wrote for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dartmouth" title="The Dartmouth" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Dartmouth</a>. He majored in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_studies" title="English studies" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">English</a> and graduated<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_cum_laude" title="Summa cum laude" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">summa cum laude</a>, then continued his studies at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,Oxford_University" title="Christ Church, Oxford University" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Christ Church, Oxford University</a>, pursuing a second <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor%27s_degree" title="Bachelor's degree" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Bachelor's degree</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,Politics_and_Economics" title="Philosophy, Politics and Economics" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Philosophy, Politics and Economics</a> and graduating in 1982. Robinson also attended the Leland <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford" title="Stanford" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Stanford</a> Junior University's Graduate School of Business. He graduated with an MBA in 1990.<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3;">Speechwriter<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Speechwriter" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2>Immediately upon graduation, Robinson applied for a position at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House" title="White House" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">White House</a>. In an event he describes as a "fluke",<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[2]</a> he was given a job as the chief speechwriter for Vice President Bush. In what he calls a "second fluke", he was then transferred to President Reagan's staff as a special assistant and speechwriter, where he wrote the famed 1987 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall" title="Tear down this wall" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Tear down this wall</a> address. Referencing Soviet General Secretary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev" title="Mikhail Gorbachev" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Mikhail Gorbachev</a>'s refusal to remove the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall" title="Berlin Wall" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Berlin Wall</a>, the speech, delivered by Reagan at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate" title="Brandenburg Gate" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Brandenburg Gate</a> in West Berlin on 12 June 1987, contained the sentence: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"On arrival in the city before writing the speech, Robinson was warned by US diplomats to avoid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Cold War</a> rhetoric and that Berliners had adjusted to the presence of the Berlin Wall. However, after consultation with local Berliners, he found them deeply wounded and concerned about the wall; in many instances it had separated families and represented an intrusion of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state" title="Police state" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">police state</a> into daily life. Returning to Washington D.C., Robinson's phrase became controversial with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_State" title="United States Department of State" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">State Department</a> and other staff members, including Chief of Staff <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Baker" title="Howard Baker" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Howard Baker</a> and National Security Advisor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell" title="Colin Powell" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Colin Powell</a>. Repeated attempts were made to remove it from the speech, but Reagan overruled them, wishing to communicate not only with West Berliners but with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany" title="East Germany" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">East Germans</a> on the other side of the wall.In total, Robinson wrote more than 300 speeches during his tenure at the White House. After serving for six years, Robinson decided to attend business school at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University" title="Stanford University" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Stanford University</a>, graduating a third time in 1990 with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Business_Administration" title="Master of Business Administration" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Master of Business Administration</a>. The journal he kept of his two-year experience there was the basis for his book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snapshots_from_Hell:The_Making_of_an_MBA&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA</a>, published in 1994, which details the considerable difficulty he encountered during the first year of business school due to his lack of a "quantitative background".<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3;">Research fellow<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Research fellow" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2>In the early 1990s, Robinson joined the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation" title="News Corporation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">News Corporation</a> run by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch" title="Rupert Murdoch" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Rupert Murdoch</a>, and then served as press secretary to the Chairman of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="Securities and Exchange Commission" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Securities and Exchange Commission</a>. In 1993, Robinson became a research fellow at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Institution" title="Hoover Institution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Hoover Institution</a>, Stanford's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_policy" title="Public policy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">public policy</a> research center. In addition to writing about business and politics, he also edits the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Digest" title="Hoover Digest" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Hoover Digest</a> and hosted a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS" title="PBS" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">PBS</a> public affairs television program<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Knowledge" title="Uncommon Knowledge" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Uncommon Knowledge</a>, later re-branded as a Web cast at hoover.org, and then arranged to be released semiweekly on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review_Online" title="National Review Online" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">National Review Online</a>. He has written How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life and It’s My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP, a study of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Republican Party</a>.On May 12, 2005, Robinson was elected to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees" title="Board of Trustees" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Board of Trustees</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_College" title="Dartmouth College" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Dartmouth College</a><h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3;">Personal life and writings<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; font-family: sans-serif;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Personal life and writings" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2>Robinson lives in northern California with his wife and their five children. In 2003, he published his third book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. He has stated that it is "nothing less than a love story – an account of the profound respect and affection that one young man came to feel for the President who changed his life forever." The book received a favorable review from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Margaret Thatcher</a>, and she has remarked that it features a "wealth of insights".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Robinson(speechwriter)#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[3]</a>