David Gergen

I think they can absolutely point to the Bush administration for the huge deficits this year.

Symbolic. You know, Tom Foreman just said, he talked about the president bringing an ax to the budget. Unfortunately, it looks more like a set of tweezers.

Jack Kemp was the Republicans' happy warrior. He was... very, very concerned about how do we find policies that make a difference for the poor and the down and out.

Jack Kemp was also very, very concerned about how do we find policies that make a difference for the poor and the down and out, the downtrodden?

I think it is a good idea for a party to listen, especially when it's taken a couple of pastings.

This has become less of the big-tent party than the one that existed 10 or 15 years ago.

Well, that's certainly true, Anderson. Remember, he was 20 points behind in the Republican primary poll just a couple of weeks ago just before he switched. And now he's 20 points ahead of all comers. So it made a big difference for him in…

But I must say, Anderson, this is on the eve of the 100th day for President Obama.

It means the chances for a passage of a universal health care bill have just gone up. It means chances for getting energy and environmental bill have gone up.

I certainly did not.

I think President Obama, you know, campaigned that he was going to try to open and change relationship in Latin America and Europe and that sort of thing. He's following through, doing just what he said he would do.

President Ahmadinejad of Iran just seems nearly bipolar. On some days, he's -- he's reaching out constructively. On other days, he seems like a dangerous madman.

I do think, though, that there -- when the former director of the CIA and the former head of the FBI say, you know, we got some helpful information out of this, it -- it -- it underscores Obama's, President Obama's, restraint in how he has…

I think he felt -- all evidence supports the idea that he felt it was more important to publish than to not publish to help clear the United States' name, to help restore America's respect within the world.

I think Mark Danner made a useful correction. I think I went too far in saying that somehow President Obama directly approved or said that yes, this was useful.

It was more important to publish than to not publish to help clear the United States' name, to help restore America's respect within the world.

I do think, though, that when the former director of the CIA and the former head of the FBI say we got some helpful information out of this, it underscores Obama's -- President Obama's restraint and how he has treated this.

This was a very, very set of close calls for President Obama. David Axelrod today said the President, is in the White House, a political adviser to the President, said it took President Obama about a month to sort this out.

I think this is a time -- and we have seen this out of Nelson Mandela and out of Vaclav Havel in their own countries. There are times when you really need to move to healing and move on.

Water-boarding is flat-out torture. We just ought to accept that. And it's something the United States should not do.

I also think that we need to join as a country and -- and condemn this kind of practice.

And that's why people like John McCain, on the Republican side, were so opposed to this sort of thing.

We do need to know more about this, but we don't need witch hunts.

I thought what President Obama did today, I thought it was right to put the memos out.

Water boarding is flat-out torture. We just ought to accept that as something that the United States should not do.