David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN, best-selling author and past adviser to four U.S. presidents, was the inaugural speaker at the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University on March 21st, 2013.
Gergen also serves as a professor of public service at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the director of its Center for Public Leadership. In 2000, he published the best-selling book, “Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.” Gergen pointed to the strong sense of optimism he has about the Millennial Generation coming up and into its own, and he noted that one positive effect of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the number of U.S. servicemen and women returning with strong leadership skills and a can-do spirit. Gergen said his best advice for PBA students is to read – especially biographies of great men and women and to learn lessons from their struggles. Speaking about the current climate in Washington, Gergen said that he is a short-term pessimist and long-term optimist about solving the nation’s debt problems and the future of America, in general.
