David Gergen looked like who he was: a political operative, a back room advisor, a news network commentator. Or maybe he’s just who we think of first when assessing who excelled in all those careers.
Earning law degrees with honours from both Yale and Harvard, he was an advisor to four US presidents: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He was also the director of communications for Gerald Ford. Working for both Republican and Democrat administrations is a feat that seems unimaginable today. That is because Gergen was a centrist back when there was a centre in American politics.
“Centrism doesn’t mean splitting the difference,” he once said. “It’s about seeking solutions and you bring people along. I’m happily in that role.”
Gergen wrote speeches for Nixon during Watergate and counseled Clinton during the Monika Lewinski scandal. During the second Trump administration, crisis like these happen every 24 hours and seem to have little lasting effect. Back in Gergen’s day, things were more consequential. Those weren’t Truth Social presidents, and America was still a democracy. Having somebody on the team with a cool head who could advise and navigate was a big deal.
When sane voices in government went out of fashion, Gergen launched a second career as a political commentator on television. He was one of the very best, winning Peabody awards as part of election night coverage teams in 1988 with PBS’s MacNeil–Lehrer Report as well as in 2008 with CNN. The North Carolina native’s steady, slightly Southern-sounding voice could always be heard above the din, layering context onto returns.
His death from Lewy body dementia on July 10 at 83, one week after the passing of Bill Moyers, is such a painful sign of the times. Gone are two giants of the American political commentary scene departing right when the rule book has been banned and burned.
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For more on Gergen, check out this report on his passing from CNN 360 host Anderson Cooper, which also includes a salute from another respected political commentator and operative, David Axelrod.
