David Gergen

The speech by Senator Lugar tonight is a dramatic break with the administration.

The argument that the vice president's office is not part of the executive branch, not part of the presidency is absurd on its face.

I think, Anderson, that obviously his stand on the war as well as his stand on immigration, both of those have caused him unhappiness in different parts of the Republican Party.

It's a must win for him, Anderson. And what's really important about this poll now that's showing Hillary Clinton with a very tiny lead in Iowa is that she's been behind out there, you know, pretty steadily.

If she were to take Iowa, Nevada where she's ahead, and New Hampshire, she's going to be fairly unbeatable.

I think his chances are still very, very ennoble. I think he'll have to make a decision by spring of next year, but right now, by switching parties, you know, he sent a signal of seriousness.

This could really be -- if he were to lose Iowa and New Hampshire, it's hard to see how he John McCain comes back.

The fact is, the Democrats didn't have the votes. This is what happens when you have a party that has got -- it does have a majority, but it's only got 51/49.

What the Democrats need to do, if they really want to be a governing party, is to hold together on this.

I think it's a -- I think it's a very short-term, Pyrrhic victory for Mr. Bush.

I'll bet you a peanut farm down in Georgia that what he believes in his heart is what he said the first time, that he thinks that George W. Bush is the worst president in history.

Florida's the one state where Mitt Romney really does have an inside track, too, because he has hired a lot of the Jeb Bush people down there.

It's serious. He generally went after him about his positions on issues. But he also dragged him through the mud personally.

Absolutely. When we've got a half-dozen Republican senators now who have spoken out and said he ought to resign. Another half dozen, including Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the judiciary committee, have basically, implicitly, saying…

Yes, Mark -- and Anderson, Mark he was also underscoring something that's really important here. As Rudy Giuliani has taken -- has been more forthright about his positions on abortion and on gay rights and the like, especially abortion.

Are we making enough progress on the battlefield? And is the Maliki government in Iraq made enough progress to justify going on?

I think he's -- he's been very isolated.

That's a big shift in position, for the administration to accept legislative timetables.

Republicans are -- clearly do not want to go over the waterfall with this president, if, by September, things haven't cleared up.

The president himself would prefer not to have that kind of September timetable.

I think we're clearly moving toward a time of September time.

There is a widespread fear, Anderson, among Republicans, that George W. Bush could turn out to be their Herbert Hoover.

He's got to find a couple of states where he can win, and he hasn't found that yet.

I think that she's still a formidable candidate, the most likely to win.

I have such a strong regard for him as a human being. He's got more character than anybody (UNINTELLIGIBLE).