David Gergen

I think they have been articling that the media has given Barack more flattering portraits than they have of Hillary Clinton.

Not at all. Because in both parties now, we have very, very close races and naturally you're going to go in this direction.

I don't think they're playing the race card at all.

First of all, Barack did start the -- he fired first.

I think they have been clumsy.

The truth was, the message said this that is -- in this season, this is about the celebration of Christ. It was a clear appeal, I thought none at all subtle, to the Christian voters in Iowa.

Imagine if Hillary Clinton becomes president. Let's assume a second term. That means the Clintons will have controlled the Democratic Party for 23 years.

I think he, A, looks like he is trying to run his -- her campaign, which I think is a real -- after all the benefit he has brought to this campaign, is not helpful.

I think she is in trouble. And they are doing exactly what they have always done. And when they are in trouble, they come together and they work together as a team.

For Hillary Clinton to get that endorsement has brought a good press to her.

If it collapses, then you can get the hard-liners, the Islamic militants can actually have more power in the region.

He did try to stay out of this. He thought what Clinton, Bill Clinton, did at the end of his administration, trying to get a peace deal right at the end, was a very bad thing.

He got the talks started again. And, secondly, he got Arab nations to the table. That has not happened before.

It is important to do it, but it is very dangerous stuff.

Without an American at the table, that is going to be a very unusual dynamic.

He thought what Clinton, Bill Clinton, did at the end of his administration, trying to get a peace deal right at the end, was a very bad thing. And now he is doing the same thing Clinton did.

The reason to be skeptical, though, is that there is such weak leadership on all three corners of the triangle.

I think it is important that -- and the president deserves credit for actually getting the peace talks started again. They have been paralyzed for seven years.

But he certainly heavily suggests that the president was complicit, that the president was somehow an enabler in him going before the press corps and lying about the non-involvement of Libby and Rove.

I think he owes it to the president, and the vice president, as well as to the public, and to the Wilsons, to clarify long before his book comes out.

McClellan is not saying or suggesting that the president sent him out to lie, but he certainly heavily suggests that the president was complicit, that the president was somehow an enabler in him going before the press corps and lying about…

This is not what her campaign is mainly about is stopping Obama. Her campaign should be about some larger vision of what America is about.

I think one of the things that is at the foundation of his campaign is, when you live over in other countries for a while and have come from the kind of diverse background he does, you do get an instinctive understanding for other people's…

I tell you, that's -- that is starting to expose a vulnerability on Mrs. Clinton's part that she cannot let open up very much more.

I think that's right, John. And I'm surprised she's taking the bait on this. She's increasingly getting into these one-on-one arguments with Senator Obama. And she's elevating him as -- and making this a two-person race. I don't think…