More discord than harmony at No Labels presidential forum
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- There was agreement on a few things at the first annual No Labels presidential conference in New Hampshire on Monday. Everyone liked seeing Miss America's "Outstanding Teen" and the guy who played Newman on Seinfeld. But when it came to the true mission of the event - which was billed as an "uplifting rally" with a stated goal of problem solving and finding compromise - there was plenty of discord.
All eight of the presidential candidates from both parties who appeared at the event - some in person, others via Skype - were happy to tout their records of compromise. But they were also sensitive to the political realities of running for president and appeasing the hard-core partisans who vote in caucuses and primaries.
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Donald Trump told a group of reporters he'd be willing to work with Republicans and Democrats, that dealing with corporate inversion was probably something that everyone could agree upon, and he said he thought he could work with Bernie Sanders on the issue of trade because they both felt strongly about it.
Christie offered the 1,500-person crowd some zippy advice on his experience with compromise, saying "compromise is not capitulation" and "It's harder to hate up close" -- advice that's worked well for a conservative governor who has compromised on some measures with New Jersey's Democratic legislature.
And former New York Governor George Pataki shared a story from his tenure as governor about passing harsher penalties for drug kingpins carrying guns with help from Russell Simmons, who came to Albany to negotiate with Pataki and the Democratic legislature in the middle of the night. He recalled that as Democrats had protested his ideas, it was the hip-hop mogul who turned the tide. "I don't want someone with a gun roaming around my neighborhood - Pataki is right," Pataki recalled Simmons saying.
Lindsey Graham, invoking his nickname of "Lindsey GrahAmnesty," the South Carolina Senator told the crowd of his tireless efforts working with Democrats to find a way forward on immigration, despite blowback from conservatives.
They also presented their best arguments for how they'd get things done in a gridlocked Washington.
"We have to invite one another -- Democrats, Republicans, independents -- to return to the table of democracy and solve these problems not with words but with actions," Governor Martin O'Malley said via Skype.
Graham's idea also involved invitations - but he had a more literal problem-solving party in mind.
"The bottom line is here's what the next president needs to do, whoever he or she may be," Graham said. "They need to get us in a room in Washington, come to the White House, have a drink, maybe more than one. Get everybody liquored up and solve problems."
But not many were willing to give their hand at compromise on some issues of the moment -- at least in the thick of the Presidential primary.
"No," Christie flatly told a student who asked him if he were willing to meet halfway on the legalization of marijuana in the spirit of bipartisanship.
For Ohio Governor John Kasich, balancing the budget was a more a matter of force. "We need a balanced budget amendment in the constitution to force politicians to get it done," he told the crowd who had stayed for the last act of the day.
Trump was unable to find middle ground with some convention attendees. One woman asked him whether or not his divisive language hurt bipartisan progress, to which he replied, "I went to Ivy league schools. I know what's divisive. I know what's not."
Confrontation was on physical display as well, as activist and flower bearer, Rod Webber, was carried out of the event by Trump security detail and a police officer after he tried to ask Trump a question about a previous confrontation at Trump's event in Rochester. Webber was soon after charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Jon Huntsman, former Utah Governor and Co-Chairman of No Labels, observed that Monday's event might not have been the best display of compromise and bipartisanship. But he also said the real work comes after the election. The former presidential candidate told CBS News that 2016 hopefuls are more likely to evolve into problem solvers later on in the process, once "primary talk" has subsided. People transition from "trying to burn the house down" to actually thinking hard about how to solve the big issues at hand.
"Expecting compromise before the next person is elected is foolhardy. I don't think any of this is relevant until early 2017," Huntsman said.
"Just look at 2014, everyone became a problem solver going into midterms," Huntsman added. "They weren't problem solvers early on but as things got close to the finish line, everyone wanted to do what we're talking about so we're just getting a jump on the market right here."
Or, as Kasich told reporters after his speech, "You don't start out laying out what your compromises are before you sit at the table."
"You can't have it all your way you're going to try to pull some people in. It's all part of the process," he added. "I have never done of these big significant things all alone."
To some, though, the candidates' answers did not matter all that much.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing about how good they area and how much they've done everywhere else! They are doing absolutely nothing and looking at each other and pointing fingers of blame," one woman said during the event's afternoon focus group with voters. "I say, 'Shame on you.' They try to blather away at what they are going to do and they do more blathering and more blathering and they've made the American people angry enough that here we are in New Hampshire and we're not going to take it any more."
She received a huge round of applause.
One student in attendance offered a different perspective, giving presidential candidates credit for simply attending the conference and being willing to engage in dialogue about the issues.
"It's not necessarily about reaching across the aisles but standing in the aisles," Garth Fox from Tufts University, told CBS News. "A lot of people here are at least in theory are willing to profess a commitment to cooperation. And whether or not they do it in practice is not really dependent on the people here, but I think everyone here at least pays lip service to cooperation."