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American Morning

Discussion with David Gergen

Aired February 09, 2004 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: David Gergen is a former White House adviser, now editor-at-large for "U.S. News & World Report."
He is our guest now live in Watertown, Massachusetts.

And welcome back.

Always great to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Good.

Thank you.

HEMMER: I read your comments, David, earlier today. You were not impressed with this interview yesterday.

Why not?

GERGEN: Well, I thought he was rusty. He, he's still warming up for the campaign. The president made it clear that he had some pretty strong arguments for why he went after Saddam. He was much vaguer on why he had to go so quickly and he couldn't wait for the inspectors to finish their job, because, you know, as he said in that -- in 2002, just before we went in he said there's no doubt that they have weapons of mass destruction.

Now, apparently they did not. And that -- while I think that many Americans will be sympathetic to the president for having to make some very tough calls with evidence that is not, it's not as certain as one would like, I do think that after the fact they would like the president to be very straightforward about what he faced, why he made the decisions he did and if there were misjudgments or miscalculations anywhere in the administration, including the Oval Office, to acknowledge them.

And at this moment he's willing to concede virtually nothing while he makes arguments that I think are -- will be appealing, but have not been quite as sharp as he has made in the past.

HEMMER: You said a lot in your answer. Let's try and pick them one at time here.

GERGEN: OK.

HEMMER: Back to the original thought you made there at the beginning of your statement.

GERGEN: Sure.

HEMMER: Was it smart to start with "Meet The Press" and Tim Russert, do you believe? Or is this something that you go out and do local interviews for a week or two, making sure you refine your message, much like the Democratic candidates have done since Iowa?

GERGEN: That's a very good point. The Democratic candidates have had a chance to warm up now against, with a lot of audiences and to sharpen their, in their messages in ways the president has not. And I think that showed yesterday. He is a, he will be a much more effective campaigner than he was yesterday with Tim Russert.

There's an alternative way to do this, Bill, and that is if you -- I think, and I think the president would still be well served to do this -- and that is for his team to work with him in putting together a very strong, detailed document which could be in the form of a speech or a white paper that he would present to the public and then respond to questions within the context of something which is much more, you know, much more nuanced and works its way through the issues in ways that everybody can understand.

I think all of us are longing for -- it's not that people -- I mean there are some people who are really angry at the president. Let's just face that. And there are some people in love with him, they'll love him whatever he does. But there are many, many people in the middle who are troubled and puzzled and worried that we somehow got into a war without quite knowing what we were doing, that we didn't plan out the aftermath of the war very well.

And I think that, the public expects accountability from its president, and especially from this president, who has been such a straight shooter and whose credibility, now on the line, has been such a vital part of his leadership.

HEMMER: Why do you think that is the case, then? And you've been with presidents while they've been in office. Explain to us or give us an indication as to why it is that a president of the United States gets disconnected from the public because of the mere position that he holds in Washington.

GERGEN: Well, I think to some extent in the White House you're always living in a bubble. And you do get separated off from reality more than you would like. It's just, it just goes with the territory and I've seen it happen on numerous presidents and it's a difficult thing to deal with.

In this particular case, they've had a series of things now. It's not simply Iraq. It's the cost of Medicare. Only a few weeks ago they were saying it's $400 billion. Now they've increased the cost by a third after the bill was passed. They've had some trouble on the deficit, saying what was going to happen to the future of the deficits. And their credibility is in question.

You know, "Time" magazine is just now out today with this cover story about the president's credibility, can you trust him? Trust has been the most important asset to this president that he's had. It similarly was with Reagan. Now, Reagan went through a much, much more difficult thing with Iran-Contra and it damaged his credibility. And he very aggressively went back on the offensive to correct things in his administration and to be totally straightforward with the country about what had happened and to acknowledge mistakes. And he rebuilt his credibility.

I think this president can do that, but now he faces not only John Kerry on his left and discontent on his right about the deficits, but this credibility issue is one that can eat away at your standing. And that's what you need to protect as president, especially in time of war.

HEMMER: Thank you, David.

Come back any time, all right?

GERGEN: Thank you.

OK.

HEMMER: David Gergen there in Watertown, Massachusetts.

He has served both Democratic and Republican presidents in the White House.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 9, 2004 - 08:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: David Gergen is a former White House adviser, now editor-at-large for "U.S. News & World Report."
He is our guest now live in Watertown, Massachusetts.

And welcome back.

Always great to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Good.

Thank you.

HEMMER: I read your comments, David, earlier today. You were not impressed with this interview yesterday.

Why not?

GERGEN: Well, I thought he was rusty. He, he's still warming up for the campaign. The president made it clear that he had some pretty strong arguments for why he went after Saddam. He was much vaguer on why he had to go so quickly and he couldn't wait for the inspectors to finish their job, because, you know, as he said in that -- in 2002, just before we went in he said there's no doubt that they have weapons of mass destruction.

Now, apparently they did not. And that -- while I think that many Americans will be sympathetic to the president for having to make some very tough calls with evidence that is not, it's not as certain as one would like, I do think that after the fact they would like the president to be very straightforward about what he faced, why he made the decisions he did and if there were misjudgments or miscalculations anywhere in the administration, including the Oval Office, to acknowledge them.

And at this moment he's willing to concede virtually nothing while he makes arguments that I think are -- will be appealing, but have not been quite as sharp as he has made in the past.

HEMMER: You said a lot in your answer. Let's try and pick them one at time here.

GERGEN: OK.

HEMMER: Back to the original thought you made there at the beginning of your statement.

GERGEN: Sure.

HEMMER: Was it smart to start with "Meet The Press" and Tim Russert, do you believe? Or is this something that you go out and do local interviews for a week or two, making sure you refine your message, much like the Democratic candidates have done since Iowa?

GERGEN: That's a very good point. The Democratic candidates have had a chance to warm up now against, with a lot of audiences and to sharpen their, in their messages in ways the president has not. And I think that showed yesterday. He is a, he will be a much more effective campaigner than he was yesterday with Tim Russert.

There's an alternative way to do this, Bill, and that is if you -- I think, and I think the president would still be well served to do this -- and that is for his team to work with him in putting together a very strong, detailed document which could be in the form of a speech or a white paper that he would present to the public and then respond to questions within the context of something which is much more, you know, much more nuanced and works its way through the issues in ways that everybody can understand.

I think all of us are longing for -- it's not that people -- I mean there are some people who are really angry at the president. Let's just face that. And there are some people in love with him, they'll love him whatever he does. But there are many, many people in the middle who are troubled and puzzled and worried that we somehow got into a war without quite knowing what we were doing, that we didn't plan out the aftermath of the war very well.

And I think that, the public expects accountability from its president, and especially from this president, who has been such a straight shooter and whose credibility, now on the line, has been such a vital part of his leadership.

HEMMER: Why do you think that is the case, then? And you've been with presidents while they've been in office. Explain to us or give us an indication as to why it is that a president of the United States gets disconnected from the public because of the mere position that he holds in Washington.

GERGEN: Well, I think to some extent in the White House you're always living in a bubble. And you do get separated off from reality more than you would like. It's just, it just goes with the territory and I've seen it happen on numerous presidents and it's a difficult thing to deal with.

In this particular case, they've had a series of things now. It's not simply Iraq. It's the cost of Medicare. Only a few weeks ago they were saying it's $400 billion. Now they've increased the cost by a third after the bill was passed. They've had some trouble on the deficit, saying what was going to happen to the future of the deficits. And their credibility is in question.

You know, "Time" magazine is just now out today with this cover story about the president's credibility, can you trust him? Trust has been the most important asset to this president that he's had. It similarly was with Reagan. Now, Reagan went through a much, much more difficult thing with Iran-Contra and it damaged his credibility. And he very aggressively went back on the offensive to correct things in his administration and to be totally straightforward with the country about what had happened and to acknowledge mistakes. And he rebuilt his credibility.

I think this president can do that, but now he faces not only John Kerry on his left and discontent on his right about the deficits, but this credibility issue is one that can eat away at your standing. And that's what you need to protect as president, especially in time of war.

HEMMER: Thank you, David.

Come back any time, all right?

GERGEN: Thank you.

OK.

HEMMER: David Gergen there in Watertown, Massachusetts.

He has served both Democratic and Republican presidents in the White House.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com