David Gergen

Can they do it? Yes, they still have time to do it. It's going to be tough, but they can do it.

She's vulnerable, she's not inevitable, she can be stopped. She'll be stopped in Iowa.

These are the -- the chatter out of these debates has a big impact.

I think for John Edwards, the danger right now is that this could increasingly become a two-person race.

It is, but yes, there -- it was a missed opportunity for the other Democrats. She was -- she was bleeding coming into this debate. And she stopped the bleeding last night.

What we're looking for now is out of can, out of all this welter of conversation, can someone emerge who has the integrity of the judgment and the capacity to bring us together?

I think the hard question is can the winner govern? Can the winner lead? That's going to be really, really tough.

The next president has to deal with the environment. And you've got to get a comprehensive energy and environmental bill.

The challenges facing this next president are enormous just in terms of trying to bring people together.

Nobody wants to lose the war, but the question is, is there shared responsibility for this war?

The heart of this issue is not -- and this is what the Democrats have to make clear, that it's not whether the country is going to be strong against terrorism and fight it effectively. The question is whether we're going to use torture…

But McCain, in addition to the dislike, also needs to knock off Romney in order to become number two in this race.

Romney, originally, by saying, I'm the real Republican, was actually going after Giuliani. That was a veiled attack against Giuliani, the front-runner, you know, the fragile front-runner.

What we know is that the president met earlier today with a handful of journalists. And it's been reported out of that, that he talked about signing up an agreement with Iraq that would commit the United States to the security of Iraq.

Rove is the single most significant adviser, at least in domestic policy, had a great hand in it, especially in the second term, and was really the architect for a lot of what Bush did.

What he brought to governing was the mind of someone who likes to win campaigns.

Karl Rove's importance initially was that he was the political strategist to help guide George W. Bush not only to victory in Texas, but then into the -- in the nation.

I think history is going to ask that question several times.

No, absolutely not unstoppable. But I do think, as we've discussed in the past, that these debates have been an enormous help for her and she has broken this open.

I think what he has to do is hope that Giuliani sinks, which he might, because Rudy Giuliani right now has a pretty strong lead.

He has been a man of courage, but in this case, a profile in courage -- of courage is actually backfiring on him.

The lack of money or fund-raising is a reflection on a cause of what's going on here, and as a reflection basically of the war, plus tying himself to immigration.

It's a remarkably removed White House, in that sense.

He's not saying, let's pull out. He's saying, let's downside. And that's moving toward, in effect, a plan B.

They have been trying to downplay its significance to buy themselves more time.