From Late Edition Oct. 19, 2008 David Gergen gives the Democrats some advice on how they should respond to being called socialists.

Gergen: If you go back to the distribution of wealth in 1979, thirty years ago versus today the people in the bottom eighty percent are losing compared to back then six hundred billion dollars a year. The top one percent of the population is gaining six hundred billion dollars a year compared to back then. We have had a redistribution of wealth in this country, up, and that has been aided by government policies.

Blitzer: But what the McCain people are suggesting and even Sen. McCain yesterday in his radio address suggested this is almost socialism.

Gergen: We just had a Republican government that has put a hundred and fifty billion dollars in the banks. They have injected the government more fully into the banking system, the financial system than any time in history. And so it's a hollow argument. (crosstalk) It's a hollow argument. I mean, I think the Republicans, the Democrats, if they want to join this argument they can. This is, there are very strong arguments to say "You guys are accusing us of socialism when you've just spent a hundred and fifty billion dollars as a down payment on a seven hundred billion dollar bailout."