David Gergen-CNN.. [View all]

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Summers does believe in the power of the marketplace and he respects the U.S. financial industry as one of the nation's prize assets, a creator of growth and jobs. But he also believes in regulation.

As columnist Ed Luce pointed out in the Financial Times on Monday, he wanted to be tougher on banks than many of his colleagues early in the Obama years. The liberal Democrats who have chased him with pitchforks over repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 conveniently forget that it passed the House by 362--57 with Democrats voting in favor by 3-1. Nor do they take any responsibility for doing anything to correct it in the eight years between passage and the economic crisis. Nor do they admit that it had precious little to do with causing the crash.

Larry Summers is by no means perfect, but in the din of recent weeks, it has been hard to keep things in perspective. Yes, he was very clumsy in his comments about female scientists while at Harvard -- but he clearly did not mean to say that women are somehow inferior and he apologized repeatedly for his clumsiness. Who would have known from the past few weeks how many women like Sheryl Sandberg have worked for him and are fierce champions for him?

Yes, he can be difficult in interpersonal conversations. He is tough minded and likes to joust intellectually. But is that a disqualification for strong leadership of a major organization? If so, we would never have heard of Steve Jobs or Jack Welch.

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