Dem: GOP should return to "Party of Lincoln"

Appearing on CBS News' "Face the Nation," Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley said the GOP presidential primary to date has shown that the Republican Party has moved to the right. While he suggested such a move will help President Obama win re-election in November, he said the GOP's trend to the right is bad for the nation.

"For the election I suppose it's best for the president if they take their hard-right turn - sort of war on unions, war on women, and all these cultural issues," O'Malley said to host Bob Schieffer.

The Democratic governor told Schieffer: "It'd be nice to see that 'party of Lincoln' emerge again, instead of this extreme right control that they submit themselves to in their own primaries."

Schieffer asked O'Malley (who is chair of the Democratic Governors Association) about Santorum's recent comments about education, where he said higher education "indoctrinates" students and for calling the president a "snob" for encouraging college.

"There's much that Rick Santorum says that I don't really get," O'Malley said. "I think that all of us can acknowledge though is that in order for our country to be successful economically and for our children to actually have better opportunities than we've had, we need to educate our children at higher and better levels."

As for Santorum's comments in recent weeks in opposition to contraception, which has become a hot topic on the campaign trail, O'Malley said, "I would've thought that we were past that."

The governor said while the focus on social issues is "good for the president," they're also "bad for the country."