JUDY WOODRUFF: Now that we've heard from the voters, we have some inside-the-beltway political analysis of last night's debate. It comes from our own Gergen & Shields. That's David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report, and syndicated columnist Mark Shields. Mark, you're not protesting because --

MARK SHIELDS: Inside-the-beltway --

MS. WOODRUFF: This is inside the beltway.

DAVID GERGEN: He spent three days in Portland this week.

MR. SHIELDS: That's about as far off the beltway as you can get.

MS. WOODRUFF: All right. Did the debate change anything, Mark?

MR. SHIELDS: Sadly for George Bush and the Republicans, no. I mean, George Bush gave an appealing, authentic performance last night and I think he was likeable. But, as my colleague, Mr. Gergen, pointed out last night, there was no convincing consistent theme to his presentation. And it was a great debate on George Bush's part for somebody who is 10 points ahead. Unfortunately, he wasn't.

MS. WOODRUFF: Anything different, anything changed?

MR. GERGEN: The only thing that I think may have changed a bit is the support for Ross Perot, in the sense that my feeling right now is that Perot may have peaked in the first presidential debate. Adm. Stockdale's performance I think dampened as much as -- we talked about this before -- as a war hero as he is, nonetheless, it took a little of the bloom off the rose. I think that Ross Perot last night sounded a bit more repetitive and did not have the -- sometimes something to back up -- so my sense is that there's a bit of an edge coming off that.

MS. WOODRUFF: And that --

MR. GERGEN: George Bush is picking up a bit of that right now, but maybe --

MS. WOODRUFF: That's what I was going to ask. Who's helped by that?

MR. GERGEN: Well, what -- it will probably split, but I think Bush is picking up a bit of it right now, and that may help him. But I -- I have to say that I think in terms of the Clinton/Bush dynamic, that has not changed. George Bush was very good last night. I thought he was better than his first debate, but, nonetheless, he did not have a theme, did not have a message, and I thought this format fit Bill Clinton like a glove. He was clearly connected with the voters, and so I thought he was -- he was helped by it.

MS. WOODRUFF: Mark.

MR. SHIELDS: Ross Perot made a serious mistake. He should have run the half hour which he's running tonight on network television between the two debates.

MS. WOODRUFF: Why?

MR. SHIELDS: Because then he would have forced the discussion, he would have forced the debate, he would have forced both Clinton and Bush to address his ideas, and it's -- it's some pretty strong medicine. He would have had to defend it, but they would have had to come up with an explanation as to why they haven't offered equally severe or demanding solutions.

MS. WOODRUFF: Now some people have started to criticize Mr. Perot for not talking more about solutions, for talking so much about the defining of the problem, but not -- do we know what he's going to say tonight?

MR. SHIELDS: The second one has been the promise, this is what I'm prescribing. That's -- now I have not seen it, but that's what it's been billed as, and --

MS. WOODRUFF: So you're saying if that had been out there --

MR. SHIELDS: That's right. If he had put that on with the proposed solutions, suggestions, and specific ideas of no can't and no rhetoric, then I think it would have put -- it would have changed the dynamic of the evening.

MR. GERGEN: But his solutions are in his book.

MR. SHIELDS: Yes, they are.

MR. GERGEN: I don't understand why he has not been pushing some of these answers.

MR. SHIELDS: That's right.

MR. GERGEN: Some of them are pretty tough stuff. He's got a gasoline tax and the country has resisted so far, politicians regard it as poison. Most people in the public policy community think it's absolutely necessary for a 50-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax phased in over five years. He has not really pushed things like that. He hasn't asked --

MS. WOODRUFF: Not just in the debates, but anywhere.

MR. GERGEN: That's right.

MR. SHIELDS: He did debate -- Sunday night -- Sunday night --

MS. WOODRUFF: When he was asked about it.

MR. SHIELDS: When he was asked about it, he defended it and neither of the other two took a cheap shot at it. I noticed that George Stephanopoulos, George -- the campaign deputy, Clinton's deputy campaign manager, communications director -- did take a shot at in the Wall Street Journal the next day by saying as people learn about the cost of it, they will -- they will be disenchanted with Perot.

MS. WOODRUFF: David -- it's been -- I've seen some commentators today saying the president didn't really defend himself. You may have even made this point, yourself, last night, that he didn't defend his own -- his own economic policy. What do you make of that?

MR. GERGEN: Well, even his own advisers are telling people they don't know what to make of it. You know -- they sat in sessions prior to the debates -- they feed a lot of things to him. And it's always on a basis he sort of takes it in, but says, I'll handle it as it comes up. So he goes into these debates, by all reports, without a clear strategy, except in his head, and then what comes out is essentially an ad hoc response to the question that's put to him, rather than a thematic approach, as Dan Quayle brought into the debate, and I think effectively helped the president in the vice presidential debate. The president is not helping himself much by not having a thematic approach. And beyond that, I have been stunned -- I can only say that -- by the number of times he has let things pass without responding. Bill Clinton has continually made the argument now that we're in the grips of a failed economic theory, trickle-down economics. Not once have I heard George Bush say, wait a minute, during these past 12 years, 18 million jobs, we had the longest period of growth in our peacetime history, et cetera.

MS. WOODRUFF: But why hasn't he?

MR. GERGEN: I don't know. It's almost as if he believes it. And that's the impression he's leaving. Now there is an interesting question about format last night. And that was when the president took the question, as he often did, he often took it first, and then Bill Clinton will come after him. The president had no chance to respond. But even so, Judy, I thought that they were -- he had ample opportunity somewhere along the way not only to make a vigorous defense of himself, but to make a vigorous -- go on the offense, and I think that's why Republicans are frustrated today.

MS. WOODRUFF: Just quickly, Mark.

MR. SHIELDS: Just quickly, my friend, Mr. Perot needs the reaction of an audience. He feeds off an audience. And the failure of a good line -- it's not the Democrats, it's not the Republicans that caused the deficit, it's some extraterrestrial, not to get a response from that I think tended -- took a little wind out of his sails. Bill Clinton does something fascinating in these things. If you ever watch him. Ask him a question, Judy, and he'll come right at you. He'll start to walk toward the person. It gives a personal feeling --

MS. WOODRUFF: This is his format, as you said, several times last night.

MR. SHIELDS: It is ideal.

MS. WOODRUFF: All right, gentlemen.