David Gergen made a number of interesting comments. He said that given the current state of politics in America (divisive), the audience will tend to focus on that aspect of the speech which he/she doesn’t like. So the Left will focus on the “surge” aspect (increasing troop levels), while the Right will focus on giving a time-table (it’s 18 months). (Ironically, of course, Obama attempted to keep both sides happy — give both a portion of what they wanted, but not give one side everything asked for — but in doing this, David Gergen suggested, it would probably end up not pleasing anyone. In other words, Obama was proposing a middling ground, when in wars you need to be either “all in” or “all out.”)