YouSaid · the spoken record

David Gergen

lines on the record: 81
first: 2020-02-06
most recent: 2020-02-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Picture for a while until you lost your. Pitch, I heard, so I was tall, but there was a period of time when I was around 14, when I sprouted up. I gained about six inches over eight months or so. Any event, I lost my control. I had been a pretty good pitcher before that. We'd gone to state championships with Pony League, that kind of stuff. But I completely lost my control. And I try not for the high school baseball team. And we had our first practices inside a gym. And I threw a pitch to the catcher. And it did go through a window. David, the window was on the second floor of the gym. Did the coach call you up and say, maybe you should try calculus? So at that point, I became a, I became a sports writer for the local newspaper.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But my dad would say long story, but he was a mathematician who was chairman of the Duke Math Department. So I grew up with this somewhat austere and also very school-oriented father. But when I first went off to college, I took calculus. And when I got home at Christmas, he quizzed me a little bit. And he took me over to Blackboard at Duke, and we worked afternoon afternoon so he could get me over the bar. And he made it very clear when it was over. My dad said, you should, son, you should look for another line of work.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But that was some generations ago when they came through Canada, so it took a while to get here. But my dad, so my dad grew up in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and my mom grew up in Boston, actually. And they met when my dad was on the faculty at Harvard in the mathematics department. That's where they met. And he courted her and married her. That's where I met my wife and courted her and married her. And that's where my son actually had his first conversations with his eventual wife. So we have a lot of Harvard related. Well, sort of Massachusetts, Cambridge related.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I'm saying what is the origins of the Gurgens in America? My mom was British, came out and had relatives on the Mayfire, but how many, lots and lots of people had relatives, that damn boat must have sunk sometime. And my dad came from Alsace-Lorraine, which has sort of been claimed at times by the Germans at times by the French.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It could be. It could be. I read some things the last couple days, what he's been saying on the stump, and it was not as impressive as I thought he is. And I do think we'll see. Will there be town halls with Bloomberg, CNN going to give them a town hall as a way? They gave other candidates? I don't know. But he will be on the debate stage, apparently, not this week, but in the few weeks. He'll be on the debate stage. How he handles himself there is going to be very important.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is a challenge. I think you remarked before he's not particularly warm individual. I'm also biased. I'm a Bloomberg fan. I wrote in his name a couple of elections ago because it was. I thought he was a very good mayor of New York, and I think you'll make a fan.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, but I think it can thrust you into the limelight in a way that people can't. People will have to make decisions about whether people have to take you into account. He'll be part of the mix that doesn't necessarily bring the nomination. At some point, rather debates or his public experiences and that sort of thing, he has to prove himself to voters. That's a challenge.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. There's one little piece of it that I think needs to be put into the puzzle too, and that is in New Hampshire. Before Iowa, Buddha Jesuits was running third and Biden was running second. The Boston Globe has been reporting now that their early numbers are the Buddha judge has gotten a boost in New Hampshire. If he passes Biden and comes out second in New Hampshire, I think that there's a real difference between a Buddha judge beats Biden in New Hampshire. That's one story. But if he loses Biden, it's another story. And that rate, that competition is worth watching.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you keep Exactly, exactly. And his number, you know, Trump's going to move ahead of him in the polls here if Biden loses another one. So I think the pressure's on. That's not to say he can't do it. I think he's still got plenty of life. But if he were to come in third or fourth in New Hampshire, I don't think that South Carolina necessarily solved this problem to come back and win in South Carolina. I don't think that's enough. I think it's still a weakened candidate, a wounded candidate.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I would say, David, that the big story out of last night was not necessarily Buddha Judge. The big story to me was Biden. And finishing as weekly as he did, coming in forth. And we'll have to see whether he improves. It looks like he's pretty well.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a peanut farmer coming out of Georgia with only one term as governor. And yet he ran a remarkably good race. He got off this great start right at the opening and Presque fell in love with Press Love's underdogs and especially ones with fresh faces. And he took off. And similarly with Barack Obama, nobody expected him to do what he did. But in both the Carter case and the Obama case and now in the Buddha Jedge case, they're making their mark by appealing to the idealism of the country at a time when there's an awful lot of anguish about what's going on in Washington and they're sort of saying we can be better. We can do better than this. And we gave Carter the benefit of the doubt. He didn't turn out to be a great president, but he was the same. But he wasn't a great president. But Obama is a very strong president, and Buttaj is suddenly now, we'll see, he could flame out very quickly.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is a push cooker, but for a young man this age, he's half the age of some of the people he's competing against to do as well as he did. I think it's not only striking, but it raises the question, could he be another one of these unknown figures who sort of bursts into our politics? And there's a lot of excitement that Jahid generates and he suddenly becomes a nominee or has a real shot at the nomination. You know, we saw this way back with Jimmy Carter in 1976. You were on the other side of that. Who was this guy, you know?”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I agree with that absolutely. Look, I thought the biggest surprise last night was that Buddha Judge was running neck and neck. We don't know the final numbers, but they're definitely clumped together with Sanders. And I didn't see that coming. I thought, you know, I knew that Sanders, all the reporting was that Sanders was rising, but it was never done in the context that he's done ahead on head with Buddha Jets. So you have to give credit to Buddha Jet. He ran a good campaign. He was extremely well organized for someone coming out of being a rookie. You saw this with Obama. You're a rookie on the first time out. It's hard. It's really hard to know how to run in the primaries. Usually people run once and they lose and then they know how to better it.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and Republicans during the Obama period were also just, they kept hammering away at something that's been very important, and that is when a country's national debt gets very high as a percentage of the GDP of that country. You do run several risks of a major, major recession. And that, I think, is a serious issue here because historically We had And now it's well over 100%. And that is very dangerous territory in the minds of economists. So you coming from the University of Chicago knowing the Chicago school, that was tossed on his head”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That when it came to domestic policy, he, in fact, often sounded like a liberal president. He had this program for this group and that program for another group, and here I'm going to put money here. He was adding things on that were very expensive, spending a lot of money, and he not once spoke about deficits. And the deficits have doubled under a trillion dollars a year. That's the legacy we're leaving. So part of what's happening here is he's borrowing one hell of a lot of money to pay for a re-election through federal funding for a great number of programs. Now, we've seen this before with Democratic presidents, but I can't remember Republican president doing it quite this way.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Versus this extremely well put together speech, even though you and I may not have liked parts of it, it was well put together speech. And it was very a lot of thought went into the people who were in the balcony. I thought there were way too many. It's just clear that they're taking a pretty sophisticated view toward how to get from here to victory in November. And the Democrats are still struggling to find a candidate. Now, that's another story. Before we left this speech, I wanted to raise another question with you. What really struck me last night was”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the number of people who are independent has gone up to 42. Then Gallup now has them at 49%, which he's never. The highest he's ever been. The highest he's never been to 50. Never broke in. First president, who's never broken 50, the contrast of Iowa and the chaos in Iowa.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what is important to me is I think he was in good shape for reelection two or three weeks ago, but I think he's in stronger shape today than he was just a few weeks.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We miss that, and I think that was the spirit in which the city was governed and nation was governed. And I think this frosty relationship between the President Trump and Speaker Pelosi is sad. Each side, I guess, has reason to have intense dislike for the other. But openly snubbing her as he did when she held her hand out to shake hands and then she took her revenge as the night went on and got up and tore that speech ship part. You have to say that's it certainly says every message you need that these folks don't get along and they're not going to get much done together and they're going to be it's going to be a very very rough election”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, I can't remember a time when any president and a speaker was so estranged. If you go back to Ronald Reagan as the most conservative modern president versus Tipp O'Neill, Speaker of the House, one of the most liberal. And they got along very, very well. You remember that story when they got Social Security done together, Social Security reform, and they got tax reform done, they were major, major bipartisan legislation, and they developed an affection between each other. You know, there's that story about Tip turned, I think, 70. Reagan had a birthday party for him at the White House, invited all his friends down for lunch. At the end of the lunch, Reagan got up and he'd written out this little dog role as he liked to do. And he said, Tip, if I had a ticket to heaven and you didn't have one too, will I give my ticket back and go to hell with you?”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You have to worry that it means we're going to have a year that's entirely built around the elections and not around trying to get some serious things done. As you know, Speaker Pelosi hasn't spoken to Donald Trump since October, three and a half months or so have passed.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She ripped up his speech. Sort of pomp and circumstances. They were sort of snub for snub, wasn't there? I mean, he snubbed her to start with, and then she sort of snubbed him back.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a very big club, I think. So he's never been a favorite of mine. I don't know, David. Something like this when the man is dying. I think one should be generous.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nancy Pelosi Was one of the oddest moments I can remember States of the Union Rush Lamb beaten up on me for a long, long time. You're not in an”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me ask you a question. Do you think he's reaching out to the African American community and to minorities as a way to get votes in those communities or by doing that it make people in suburbs, women in the suburbs, yeah?”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, but I thought the plan he has for going into the general election seems to be a good one, a strong one. It underscored the Democrats are going to have to really work like hell to win this. This is not going to be get me out of the really.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For what he was trying to accomplish. I agree with you. I thought it was a strong speech. I thought he did make the ritualistic appeals to the base. But he added some things last night. He talked far more frequently about African Americans, about working families. I thought the outreach to the African American community was overdone. It was so obvious what was going on. Well, almost everybody”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let's say that again, and the time that Donald Trump has been president, if you take the month-to-month average number of job increases, it's lower than a similar period of time under Barack Obama.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Daphne on the upswing. And he did have some things he could brag about, very low unemployment rate among African Americans and Hispanics are things he can brag about. But I thought it's all said and done. You take all the Trumpian things that we find troublesome and put them to one side. He emerged from last night's speech in the strongest position of his presidency. Last night was, I thought, effective as a speech in telling people I didn't know all those things that had changed. And whether you like him or don't like him, you have to concede. A lot of things have changed and some for the better, mostly in the economic realm. Does he deserve credit for that? Well, you and I know that the president doesn't wave a magic wand and determine economic outcomes in the country. But when times are going bad, the president gets to blame, and when time's going good,”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He just has just two or three people in the world. Obama's one of them. Hillary Clinton is another one who just get under his skin. I think he's obsessed by that. And he's obsessed about being superior to them, not having to look up to them, he was all bragging about this and that and the other last night as if the world started anew when I became president. In terms of the overall arc of the speech, the fundamental idea of the speech was the great American comeback. And I do think that that is really open to question for a lot of Americans. You and I, David, are very accustomed to looking at the right track, wrong track polls that come out. They've been taken for the last 15 years or so. Is the country on the right track or on the wrong track? Going into last night's speech, we were 55% wrong track, 39% right track. That's just on the country.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the president's speech was, as everyone has discussed, but was highly partisan. Again and again and again went back to push off the Obama record and say, you know, unlike Obama, we've done such and such family.”
2020-02-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 366 — David Gergen · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source