David Gergen

This debate has erupted again... the story all over again is about Reverend Wright and his relationship with Barack Obama.

They shouldn't say anything publicly.

He just -- he has just -- this is the first time in American history that an African-American has a serious chance of ascending to the presidency, the highest office in the land.

It is entirely understandable that Reverend Wright would want to defend himself. He does feel he's been unfairly attacked.

There's a big debate within his camp about whether he should turn much more and harshly negative in Indiana.

I think he does. I think he needs to surround himself with more Bob Caseys.

He needs to have some people like that.

I think it's wrong to call for the super delegates to decide right now, as he did. And Hillary Clinton has every night to continue this fight right through the end of the primaries and for the super delegates to hold their fire until…

The big question looming over the campaign now is, can Barack Obama hold his support or is the bottom going to drop out?

I think it's wrong to call for the superdelegates to decide right now as he did. Hillary Clinton has every right to continue this fight right through the end of the primaries and for the superdelegates to hold their fire until that's over.

More than half the people in the country now have a negative view of her, and more than half think they can't trust her.

I think that some of the comments she made over the last few days, you know, she was scratching away, as Mark said. She was trying to push him down on this. But I think it also struck a lot of voters that it sounded somewhat phony.

I was surprised that she continued to go negative on him, because I don't see the evidence.

I thought, overall, that what you saw tonight was just what Candy said. And that was that every time one of these potential criticisms came up, Hillary Clinton wanted to dig it in, and he wanted to get away from these kind of questions.

There are no timetables in this. And there's also a sense in the country, you know, we're really pretty stuck here right now, aren't we?

There are going to be at least 100,000 troops still there... probably closer to 130,000, 140,000.

The next president is going to -- especially if you're a Democrat, is going to face a dilemma, because you have promised the voters you want to get out. But, yet, as you look at it, you see, you know, if I get out too quickly, this whole…

That kind of negative final fling, I think, would have doomed both of them, or could have.

It does send a message, as if Hillary Clinton needed this again -- it does send a message that this campaign has not been as smooth as it should have been.

Mark Penn's demotion could impact not just the Pennsylvania primary but the rest of the primaries to come.

I think there is an interesting question about what their message will be in the next couple of weeks and the weeks that follow.

It does raise the question when she said she dismisses Barack Obama from making good speeches -- hey, her husband has proven that there's a lot of value from making good speeches, over $50 million.

She needs a thumping victory out of Pennsylvania. She needs 10 or better, in my judgment.

Anything under 10 percent for Barack Obama, I think, coming out of Pennsylvania would be considered a moral victory for him and help him a lot.

If they have some new information which has not been disclosed, that could conceivably work. If they simply go back into attack mode and go after his character and one thing and another, I think that's going to backfire on them.