We want to continue our discussion on this growing political debate over the proposed mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York.
Is this more about a clash of cultures?
Let's discuss with our senior political analyst, David Gergen.
You're very familiar with the Harvard professor, Samuel Huntington, who warned of a clash of civilizations between the Western civilizations, Islam, the Asian civilizations. There's a column in "The Wall Street Journal" today from Ayan Hirsi Ali, who -- who writes this. She writes: "We need to recognize the extent to which the advance of radical Islam is the result of an active propaganda campaign.
Our civilization is not indestructible. It needs to be actively defended."
The title of the article, How to Win the Clash of Civilizations."
Do you buy into that -- David? DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, Sam Huntington was a friend, Wolf. And Ayan Hirsi Ali is first class. She's a very interesting woman.
I do think that there is a -- there are tensions among the civilizations that we're seeing rising, not only between the Western civilizations and Asian, but as Sam Huntington argued, between Western civilization and Islam. And he thought it was a clash or it could become a clash.
But I think, Wolf, one has to be careful not to overstate this. The goal here is to figure out how we can have better interfaith dialogue, how we can have more respect among civilizations and not sort of go down the path willy-nilly, automatically, mindlessly toward a clash.
And I think the mosque situation arises in the midst of that conversation. It's part of a much bigger issue.
BLITZER: This is a debate, I suspect, the Obama administration didn't want. And, clearly, a lot of Democrats are feeling so uncomfortable about it right now.
GERGEN: Well, clearly, they didn't want this debate to go the direction in which it has taken, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out. And that is when they waded into it, I cannot imagine that they thought that they were going to issue one statement on Friday and then have to issue a clarifying statement over the weekend and then have a firestorm over it.
And it's clear -- very, absolutely they -- they stumbled. They didn't think through what they were going to say to start with they didn't say it well. And then, with an avalanche of criticism they seemed to backtrack.
And I think it looked j it made him look as if he were waffling. And -- and that, to many Americans, is a sign of weakness. And it's something that has dogged him now through his presidency. And I also think that in his first statement, he didn't recognize, even as he spoke about the Constitution -- he was right about that. There is a Constitutional right to build this mosque. There's a legal right to build this mosque. But he didn't recognize there's an alternative perspective, that's what right isn't always -- is not always appropriate.
It's worth recalling that back in the 1990s, Pope John Paul II asked Catholic nuns to cancel plans to build a convent in Auschwitz. And he said, you know, we have a right to do that, but it's not appropriate. It's -- it's, in effect, it's violating the memories that people are trying to hold true.
And that's -- that's the sentiment you're seeing from a lot of Americans. I don't think the president seems to -- seemed to get that for most people and...
BLITZER: And just... GERGEN: -- I think that's a problem.
BLITZER: -- when the White House would like this story to go away, Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, today saying there should be an investigation not only of those who want to build the mosque, but those who are critical of this mosque. That -- that raises it to another level.
GERGEN: It sure does. And I just can't imagine the Democrats are going to want to keep this alive beyond August. I think their hope would be that this is an August story, a slow news time -- it would disappear and they can get back to other things.
But if -- if -- right now, the story is still building. And I don't -- it has a lot of legs left, doesn't it, Wolf, in journalistic parlance?
BLITZER: Yes. Well, that's what they say.
GERGEN: Yes.
BLITZER: All right, David.
Thank you.
GERGEN: Thank you.
Transcript from The Situation Room aired on August 18, 2010