David Gergen | Bio
AC360° Contributor
CNN Senior Political Analyst

Across America and much of the world, opinion of Barack Obama as president continues at levels rarely seen in recent decades. Sure, there has been sniping from the right and a little slippage in the polls, but mainstream opinion – both in the polls and the press – has generally been lavish in praise.

That is why it has been jarring to read two of the most influential and mainstream newspapers in the world over the past few days, both of them harshly critical.

In editorials, columns and news stories on Saturday and again this morning, the Financial Times castigates the President for passive leadership. Among the headlines: “President Obama needs to lead”; “Obama is choosing to be weak”; “Cap-and-trade mess”; and “Punch-drunk Obama needs middle way on Tehran”. Meanwhile, the Economist spoke out in its new issue with a full-page column entitled, “The senator-in-chief: Barack Obama is too deferential to his former colleagues on Capitol Hill”.

The essence of their argument about his domestic leadership is that the President has assigned out to Congress primary responsibility for writing major legislative bills and then has stood by passively as the bills have been so watered down or become so flawed that they fall far short of what is needed.

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AC360°

Erica and Anderson have been reminiscing about their first concerts. Anderson couldn’t remember if his was Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five or Elvis Costello. Erica admitted she saw Peter, Paul, and Mary with her dad.

That got all of us thinking about our own first concerts. What was yours?

We asked you to guess the first concerts of AC360° Contributors.

Here are some answers.

David Gergen: “That was a long time ago — maybe the late 50s — and I can’t remember whether it was Perry Como or Bo Diddley — or whether I was wearing white shoes or a bomber jacket.”

Tom Foreman: “My first real concert was a whopper: Elvis Presley when I was 16 years old.” Read Tom Foreman’s post on his experience here.

Jeffrey Toobin: “I went to a Chicago concert at Madison Square Garden. At the end of the concert, everyone lit matches and held them in the air. I thought this was evidence that this was the greatest concert ever. (I didn’t realize this was done at every concert, all the time.)”

Gloria Borger: “I remember my fist concert. It was Livingston Taylor, and I went with my (now) husband while we were in college. Too bad I was really disappointed because I thought he was taking me to see James Taylor, his brother. It turned out to be fine, although the only song I can remember now is “Carolina Day,” which I would swear is a James Taylor song. But it’s not; I looked it up. The next concert event was much better: The Chambers Brothers. I recall the only song they played was “Time Has Come Today.” In fact, I think the set isn’t over yet!”

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David Gergen | Bio
AC360° Contributor
CNN Senior Political Analyst

To watch the first African-American President from a broken family promote to the U.S. Supreme Court an Hispanic woman from a broken neighborhood was one of those moments that Americans will long savor. In his announcement today of his first nominee to the Court, President Obama quickly brought back memories of why the country elected him.

I was in the White House in 1981 when President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to join the Court, and I can remember greeting her in Chief of Staff Jim Baker’s office just before the announcement. It was Reagan’s first nomination, too – a highly symbolic occasion – and enormous pride flowed through every one of us present that day.

President Obama’s announcement stirred those same, overwhelming feelings. It is said that a president campaigns in poetry and governs in prose. Today was almost all poetry. It is likely to be remembered as one of the President’s finest hours.

From the start, it was obvious that at least on paper, Sonia Sotomayor possessed the best resume of all the candidates Obama was considering – her story of lifting herself by her bootstraps (with great help from her mom), her education at top universities, her years as a prosecutor and commercial attorney, her elevation to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush on a recommendation from the revered Democrat Sen. Patrick Moynihan, her elevation to the Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton, her long record of liberal-leaning but often pragmatic decisions. All that — and the fact that the Court has never had an Hispanic Justice and has had only two women — sang out for this nomination.

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Visitors scan the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Dave Schechter
CNN Senior National Editor

I never fail to be moved by the 58,000 names carved into the black granite and the mementos left at the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

At night the statues of 19 troops on patrol and the faces looking out from the adjacent wall haunt the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

I’m less a fan of the design of the National World War II Memorial but you cannot deny the majesty of its position on the National Mall.

But on the National Mall there is no national memorial to the Americans who fought in World War I. The sacrifice of the American Expeditionary Force is owed a place of honor near memorials for wars that came later.

The World War I troops came to be known as “doughboys,” a slang term that dated to the soldiers in the Mexican-American War of 1846. Explanations for its origin range from the chalky Mexican dust that gathered on the uniforms of American troops, the dough used to cook their rations or the clay used to clean uniforms and belts.

World War I began in 1914 but not until 1917 did the United States join the fight alongside the British, French and other nations against the armies of Germany and its allies. Several hundred thousand Americans, most who had barely traveled in their own country, boarded ships bound for Europe.

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Anderson talks with a panel about the national security speeches by former Vice President Cheney and President Obama.

Program Note: Tune in to hear more from David Gergen on the challenges facing President Obama tonight on an AC360° special, “Extreme Challenges: The Next 100 days.”

David Gergen | Bio
AC360° Contributor
CNN Senior Political Analyst

In our conversations for the Extreme Challenges special with Anderson Cooper, I was struck once again by both the enormity and complexity of the demands that President Obama will face in coming months. He started his presidency with the most daunting burden of any chief executive since Franklin Roosevelt, and if anything, it only seems to grow heavier.

As someone who has deep roots in presidencies of the past, I must say that I was among those who worried early on that he was taking on too much, too fast. My experience has been that a White House is able at best to handle one or two big issues, and when it suddenly has five or six balls in the air, it almost always drops one or two. Barack Obama has at least a half dozen flying above him — the economy, health care, global warming, Afpak, Iran, Iraq — the list goes on and on. So, I have been worried.

But one of the lessons I have also learned is that every fresh generation of leaders can teach a thing or two to older generations about how to get things done. And maybe, just maybe, we have a President who can do it all and do it with grace and style. (What did they say about Ginger Rogers: she showed that it was possible to dance as well as Fred Astaire and do it in heels and backwards?)

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Check out a preview of the AC360° Special “Extreme Challenges: the Next 100 Days.” The full special airs this Thursday at 11p.m. ET.

Anderson Cooper talks with Senior Political Analyst David Gergen about Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama.

Anderson talks with his panel about former Vice President Dick Cheney going on the attack against the Obama administration.

Anderson Cooper and panelists discuss whether or not the economy is rebounding, despite the increase of unemployment.