Former presidential adviser and CNN senior political analyst David Gergen did his best in the moments right after Hillary Clinton’s speech late Monday night reacting to the nail-biting race between her and socialist Senator Bernie Sanders by trumpeting Clinton as “animated, spirted” and clear that she’s “found more of her voice.”
Host Anderson Cooper went to Gergen immediately after Clinton’s speech concluded and Gergen first blurted out that it was “animated” and “spirited” in a signal that “we're going to have a great debates with Bernie Sanders.”
Adding that “[i]t’s going to be a much longer campaign,” he asked Cooper if he agreed with her that she was “tough” and possessed “a lot of spirit.” Cooper agreed by mentioning that “she played very well” in the January 25 CNN town hall.
The former Clinton official then gushed by borrowing a line from Clinton’s tearful thank you to New Hampshire voters in 2008: “That’s a really good point. I mean, some people do that, if you can get in that zone, the ball's bigger, comes at you. She seems to have found more of her voice. I don't think it's dramatic, but I think she’s better than she was.”
Chief political analyst Gloria Borger chimed in with some flowery language for Clinton and how she doesn’t handle large crowds particularly well but rather smaller ones:
I think her campaign is very good this time about putting her in front of the right size audience. You know, I was at a bowling alley with her — I think it was last week, she's great with audiences of like 75 people. She's not so great with these huge audiences, and they've managed to make her better, obviously because she's out on the trail all the time, but also because she relates better, when the audience is smaller[.]
Earlier on CNN, correspondent Brian Todd seemed exasperated by the idea that he was inside a caucus site where the votes were being counted “live on international television.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s coverage of the Iowa caucuses on February 1 can be found below.
CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: The Iowa Caucuses
February 1, 2016
11:35 p.m. Eastern
ANDERSON COOPER: There you have it. Hillary Clinton, giving her speech. Let's get a quick feedback from some of our panelists. David Gergen?
DAVID GERGEN: Animated, spirted, we're going to have a great debates with Bernie Sanders.
COOPER: No doubt about it. That’s about to get a lot more —
GERGEN: It's going to be a much longer campaign, but I thought she came out, given the circumstances, she knew she just escaped, but she did it, I think, with a lot of spirit. She's tough and she wants to be, isn’t she?
COOPER: She seems to be. I mean, from that town hall, that CNN recently did, I mean, that's the first time I've been in the same room with her and certainly in that room, she played very well, as did Bernie Sanders frankly, she seemed to be in the zone in these final days, as did Sanders.
GERGEN: That’s a really good point. I mean, some people do that, if you can get in that zone, the ball's bigger, comes at you. She seems to have found more of her voice. I don't think it's dramatic, but I think she’s better than she was.
COOPER: Clearly, we're waiting to hear from Bernie Sanders as well. Gloria?
GLORIA BORGER I think her campaign is very good this time about putting her in front of the right size audience. You know, I was at a bowling alley with her — I think it was last week, she's great with audiences of like 75 people. She's not so great with these huge audiences, and they've managed to make her better, obviously because she's out on the trail all the time, but also because she relates better, when the audience is smaller and she can pick people out of the audience and talk to them and that's her real skill she's developed as a candidate since the beginning of this campaign.
