"Face the Nation" transcript: March 18, 2012
(CBS News) - Below is a rush transcript of "Face the Nation" on March 18, 2012, hosted by CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. Guests are President Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod and chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus. A roundtable with CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnell, former head of the RNC Ed Gillespie and National Review editor Rich Lowry.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Today on FACE THE NATION, game on. After waiting for months for Republicans to pick President Obama's opponent, the White House decided to start the General Election campaign anyway and did it with a double-barreled attack.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of-- of the Flat Earth Society. They-- they would not have believed that the world was round.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: President Obama was right and they were dead wrong.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Republicans fired back at each other. Mitt Romney, the Republican with the most delegates, finished behind Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in Mississippi and Alabama.
NEWT GINGRICH (Republican Presidential Candidate): If you're the front runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front runner.
BOB SCHIEFFER: But by Romney's new math, there is no way Santorum or Gingrich can get enough delegates to secure the nomination. He wants them to quit, but one analyst said, not so fast.
KERMIT THE FROG ("The Colbert Report"): And the closer Mitt-- Mitt gets to that a-- a magical number of eleven forty-four delegates, well, the more leverage he has at a hypothetical brokered convention. However-- however, you know if rumors of a Santorum-Gingrich super ticket prove true, well, we're in for a hot time in Tampa.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Hey, it's already hot.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Hot sauce.
WOMAN: Hot?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's got to be hot.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We'll try to keep the heat on as we get the latest from the President's top strategist, David Axelrod; Republican National chairman, Reince Priebus; former Republican Party chair and Romney supporter, Ed Gillespie; Fox News contributor and Time magazine columnist, Rich Lowry; and our own Norah O'Donnell.
After all, this is FACE THE NATION.
ANNOUNCER: From CBS News in Washington FACE THE NATION with Bob Schieffer.
BOB SCHIEFFER: And good morning again. Welcome to FACE THE NATION. David Axelrod is the President's chief campaign strategist. He joins us from Chicago. Welcome, Mister Axelrod. Let me start with this--
DAVID AXELROD (Chief Strategist, Obama Campaign) (voice overlapping): Thanks, Bob--
BOB SCHIEFFER: --as the price of gas has gone up, the President's approval ratings have gone down, but when the Republicans started pummeling the President about this, he sort of poked fun at them. Here's what he said last week.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (March 15, 2012): They tell the same story. They head down to the gas-- gas station. They make sure a few cameras are following them. And then they start acting like, we've got a magic wand and we will give you cheap gas forever if you just elect us.
(Crowd whispering)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Every time, been the same script for thirty years. It's like a bad rerun.
BOB SCHIEFFER: But here's the irony, Axel-- Mister Axelrod. It is like a rerun because this is what candidate Obama said about George Bush four years ago.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (2008): All the while, while here in Ohio, you're paying nearly 3.70 a gallon for gas, two and a half times what it cost when George Bush took office.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So, what about that? So what is the strategy? Is the price coming down? Do you have a plan to do that, I mean, in the short run?
DAVID AXELROD: Well, first of all I'm interested to hear that clip because in June of 2008, the price of gas was four dollars and ten cents a gallon. What it underscores is the fact that we are in a global oil market. And when we are dependent solely on oil, we're-- we're affected by the rate shocks again and again and again. And what he said then, what the President said then and what he's-- what he has enacted during this administration is that we need a-- an all--of-the-above policy so that we can break this dependence on-- on oil that we-- we-- so we-- yes, we need to produce more oil domestically. We're up twelve percent since he's been President. We're producing more than at any time in-- in eight or nine years. But we also-- and we're producing more gas than ever before, but we also have to explore other things, renewable energy. We've doubled the use of renewable energy, wind and solar, biofuels, and we have to save more. And he's increased fuel efficiency standards for the first time in three decades in conjunction with the auto industry, that's saving a million barrels of oil a day when they're fully implemented, 2.2 million barrels of oil a day. The notion that we can simply drill our way out of this or that somehow that if we-- if we say that, that the gas prices will go down magically now, Newt Gingrich's 2.50 a gallon and so on. That's not oil talk, that snake oil talk. And the American people know the difference.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Mitt Romney said, I think, as late as yesterday that the President actually wanted gas prices to go up when he was running for President. He also said that the President should fire his three top energy people because they were trying to get the price up. What's that about?
DAVID AXELROD: Well, I think it's about nonsense is what it's about. And obviously you heard the President four years ago. He wasn't advocating higher gas prices. Again, we have to have a national strategy for getting control of our energy future. And that involves persistence, not just in increasing domestic oil and gas production. And we've freed up tens of-- of millions of new acres for exploration and-- and for oil production in the future. But we have to explore these other avenues. And if we don't do all of those things we're going to be right back here again every election season and politicians like Mister Romney will pander and-- and-- and the poor American consumer will be left in the same position. And-- so we need to keep going forward with an all of the above strategy on energy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Was it a mistake now in retrospect to stop that Keystone Pipeline project? That was the-- they were going to bring a pipeline to bring the oil down to the Gulf Coast from Canada. That put a lot of people to work amongst other things. Do you have regrets about not going on with that?
DAVID AXELROD: Well, Bob, first of all, you should direct that question to Mister Priebus and to the Republican leadership in the Congress because what-- what they did was force a-- a premature decision on this. The State Department said they needed more time to evaluate the project and all of its implications, including what it would mean for the Water aquifers in-- in Nebraska. And the Congress wanted to force a decision for political reasons and they did. And so not having the time to make a proper decision, they had to decline this-- this proposal. If it's resubmitted it will be considered again. And-- and hopefully in the time frame that is appropriate. But understand this President has approved dozens of pipelines. He is going to speak this week about another spur from Oklahoma to the Gulf so we can relieve a glut of oil that we have and get it down to refineries there. So he is certainly not hostile to transporting oil, but we have to do it in the appropriate way and protect the public safety in doing it. So no, I-- it may have been a mistake for the Republicans to force the decision so quickly. That I agree with. But that's their-- that's their decision to explain, not ours.
BOB SCHIEFFER: You know it seems like that you all were waiting for the Republicans to pick a nominee before you actually sort of kicked off the-- the general election campaign. But I got the sense last week you were tired of waiting and decided to just go ahead when the President and the vice president went out there and made some pretty strong attacks. Do you have any idea who you think you're going to be running against yet?
DAVID AXELROD: No, I don't. And you should address that to your next guest, you know, we thought we'd have a nominee by that-- by now. But, you know, every time it looks like Mister Romney has some momentum he gets setback. He hasn't been able to make the sale to his own party. And, you know, here in Illinois, we have a primary on Tuesday. He's outspending Rick Santorum seven to one and yet the polls are pretty narrow-- narrowly in his favor right now. So I think the Republican Party is having a hard time picking a nominee. I will say this, Bob. I do watch him parading around the state calling himself an economic heavyweight. And it's the same pitch that he made in 2002 to the people in Massachusetts. And what happened? Massachusetts went from 10th in the nation in job creation to 47th. Their debt went up 16.5 percent. Government jobs grew at six times the rate of private sector jobs. If that makes you-- if he thinks he is an economic heavyweight he must be looking in a fun house mirror because that is not the record of an economic heavyweight.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, Mister Axelrod, we thank you for that and Mister Priebus is right here. And today is his birthday. So we want to wish you a happy birthday before the--
REINCE PRIEBUS (Republican National Committee Chairman): Thank you, Bob. I think David's-- I think David's living in a permanent fun house mirror myself, but Anyway, go ahead, Bob.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Why?
REINCE PRIEBUS: Well, I mean he's-- he's defending a President, I mean, initially you talked about gas prices. He's defending a President that had-- gas prices were a dollar eighty-five a gallon when he took over. And we have got-- and-- and-- and then he defends the President's position. When the President's own energy czar said-- and this is undisputed-- that he wanted gas prices to go to European levels.
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): When did he say that?
REINCE PRIEBUS: So that we could all be forced. It was-- and about years ago. So that we could be forced to drive, you know battery-operated cars and scooters around. So-- now he's back pedaled on that statement. But very quickly, the Obama administration is finding itself in a whole lot of trouble because once again we've got a President who says one thing and then he does another. So in any event, I think that when it comes to gas prices, this President has taken our country completely backwards. And this idea that David Axelrod is spinning that now we've got record production. We've got record production because of the actions of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton years ago because it takes time. Well, this President shut down on-shore drilling. He shut down off-shore drilling. He shut down Keystone. And so now we're sitting in a place where we're no better off today than where we were three years ago. And we've got a President that's now coming back on the campaign trail again talking about an "all of the above" energy policy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, what about--
REINCE PRIEBUS: Well, that's-- that's ridiculous.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What about Mister Axelrod's assertion that it's your fault that the Keystone thing got killed because you tried to force an early decision.
REINCE PRIEBUS: Well, I think myself and everyone in the studio chuckled all about at the same time when he said that. Look, the Republicans have been in favor of this Keystone pipeline, twenty thousand jobs. You know, if there was ever such a thing as shovel ready projects here was one of them. Plus, it would get us a step closer to energy independence. It wouldn't be the whole-- the whole deal. But it's a step closer. And this President has shut down everything when it comes to energy independence in this country. We're sitting on a wealth of energy to get us to a place where we don't have four- and five-dollar gas. This President isn't there. And he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
BOB SCHIEFFER: New York Times reports this morning that behind-the-scenes strategist is starting to look into the possibility of what if this thing, your race for the nomination, goes all the way to the convention. What are you doing?
REINCE PRIEBUS (laughing): You mean in-- in preparation for that?
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
REINCE PRIEBUS: Well, first of all, I mean, I don't see that happening. One of these four candidates will be our nominee. I think we are half way through the nomination process, Bob. We're only at half time.
I think that this process is going to play itself out. We will have a nominee. I think fairly soon one, two months away. And then we're going to be prepared for Tampa. But, look, I mean, everyone watching this program knows and you and I would probably agree a month is like a year and a week is like a month and a day is like a week. And so when we get to June, July, August, September, we're going to have an eternity to debate who is going to be the next President of the United States.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, are you-- are you saying, though, that you are not making plans in any way, shape, or form for this to go all the way to the convention?
REINCE PRIEBUS: We're not making plans right now for brokered convention. But the-- the upside is is that we've got rules to handle any possibility. And, obviously, we're going to follow those rules. But right now, what we're talking about is who is going to be our nominee and what this President promised to the American people and what he delivered.
Look, do you remember four years ago, Howard Dean and Chris Dodd, two former chairmen of the DNC, were saying in headline after headline, look-- and I've got them all here in front of me-- that-- that the Democratic process is killing our chances. Our nominee won't be worth anything because Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting each other tooth and nail. Well, guess what, a tough primary, a little bit of drama actually helped Barack Obama. And now we're suffering the consequences of that.
BOB SCHIEFFER: You know, and-- and others have said that, but John McCain is the only Republican I've heard to say on camera what some other Republicans have said to me off camera and that is the longer this thing goes on, the harder it's going to be for us to win in the fall.
REINCE PRIEBUS: Yeah. And-- and, no, and-- and I love John McCain, but John McCain's old-- former advisors during the '08 race were also saying that the Democratic race is helping John McCain. And, look, what happened four years ago. We put America to sleep with our promise for-- our-- our primary four years ago. And Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nearly gouged each other's eyes out. And what happened? He won.
Look at all those governors from Wisconsin to Ohio to Michigan to Pennsylvania. Even Chris Christie had a primary in New Jersey. Primaries make candidates stronger. It-- it forces the media to talk about our candidates. And it keeps the focus on Barack Obama which is what at the end of the day this election is going to be about. It will be a referendum on whether people are better off today than they were three or four years ago which they're not. And it will be a referendum on whether Barack Obama is a man of his word and fulfills the promises that he makes to the American people, which he has not.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you really mean that John McCain put the voters to sleep by this time out?
REINCE PRIEBUS: No, I think our process did. I think that our process did. We had no drama at all. We were lockstep in the middle of March. We had our nominee. And all of the excitement, all of the energy was on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Remember, Hillary Clinton, if we forget which we always forget history very quickly. One Pennsylvania on April 22nd, Hillary Clinton-- Hillary Clinton. And so, you know, here we are in the middle of March. and I just reject this idea of handwringing--
BOB SCHIEFFER: One question. Do you think it would be better if Newt Gingrich dropped out?
REINCE PRIEBUS: Well, I'm-- I'm not going to be the referee for these guys.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Okay.
REINCE PRIEBUS: They'll have to decide for themselves. But what's most important is that we elect a President that can-- that can not just give a speech but can make a promise and keep a promise and right now the American people know that we're on the wrong track--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Okay.
REINCE PRIEBUS: --and we need a different President.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you so much, Mister Chairman.
REINCE PRIEBUS: You bet, Bob.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We'll be back with our political roundtable in a minute.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
BOB SCHIEFFER: Welcome back now. Ed Gillespie is the former head of the Republican Party is now a top strategist. Rich Lowry is a busy man. He gets paychecks from Fox News as a contributor, from Time Magazine as a columnist, and he finds time to be editor of the National Review.
RICH LOWRY (Fox News Contributor/Time Columnist): When are you going to start paying me, Bob?
BOB SCHIEFFER: And we're also joined by our own Norah O'Donnell who does this on voluntary basis. She's such a good citizen.
Ed, let me ask you this question. New York Times, big story on the front page today says, Reince Priebus says not so, but I have a feeling there are people that are behind the scenes planning for this thing going all the way to the convention. Do you think that's going to happen?
ED GILLESPIE (Former Republican National Committee Chairman): I don't think it's going to happen. I do think that our process is different this year than it has been in the past and we have this proportional delegate allocation. You have the Super PACs, you know, playing a role that we haven't ever seen in primaries before and I-- it is stretching it out. But my sense is, Bob, that at the end of the day someone is going to wrap up the nomination. I think the-- the likely nominee is-- is Mitt Romney. And as you know I support Governor Romney. I voted for him in the Virginia primary. And I think when you look at the numbers he's likely to-- to prevail.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you have any regrets now looking back on Michael Steele the previous RNC chairman who was the one who changed this to proportional which means that if you win a primary you don't get all the delegates, you get number and percentage to the amount of delegate-- of votes that you got. Do you think it would have been better to go back to the old way?
ED GILLESPIE: You know it's-- the-- the grass is always greener, you know, the fact is for a long time Republicans said we have a process that allows a front runner to wrap up too soon, you know, to-- to-- we're done by March. We need a longer process that allows for people to rise and to the-- you know, and challenge the front runner. And that's what we have now. And I do think that whoever emerges at the end of the day--again I think it's going to be Governor Romney--he's going to be stronger as a result of that process. But there is no doubt there are a lot of folks saying, boy, I wish we had a nominee right now who could take the case, you know, to-- to President Obama. So there is some second guessing. But I actually think that-- that this process is going to be good for us--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Rich, let me ask you the question that I asked Reince Priebus just now. Would it be best if Newt Gingrich just got out? You have actually written about that.
RICH LOWRY: Yeah, I have a column in time this week about this. I think he doesn't have a rationale anymore, you know, he's not even a regional candidate. He is a sub-regional candidate. His geographic base seems to be the border between South Carolina and Georgia, the two states he's won. Now there is some debate about who he would actually help if he got out. Some polls say his vote would split both ways between Santorum and Romney. Santorum people certainly don't believe that. And if you look at the results in Alabama and Mississippi, Santorum's win came directly out of the hive of Newt Gingrich. So I think Santorum has outclassed and beaten Newt Gingrich and deserves the chance at the clean shot at Romney.
NORAH O'DONNELL (CBS News White House Correspondent): There's one issue though ad that is that the Republicans are making the case that this is like 2008 with Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama. And you heard Reince Priebus just say, well, we put people to sleep by having that process in the past. But this has not excited the Republican base in fact, turnout is down in the Republican primaries. And Bill Mclnturff, who is a well-respected Republican pollster, was John McCain's pollster, has said this process has had a corrosive affect on the nominees. Mitt Romney has very high unfavorables, higher than any other recent nominee other than Bill Clinton, so it has taken its toll on the Republicans. Now on the flip side, President Obama is looking at a very difficult re-election with unemployment still at eight percent, and a lot of people feeling pain because of rising gas prices but the Republicans are struggling. I think it's not fair to say that they've excited people in the process.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What about that, Rich?
RICH LOWRY: Well, I don't know whether it's the process or it's Mitt Romney. You know, I think he's a weak front-runner. I think he is inherently kind of the default candidate in this process. He has to take down the other guys in-- in order for himself to pop up. And I think that's one of the reasons, you know, he had trouble down in Alabama and Mississippi, part of which was just demographic and geographic. But he really needs to keep his boot on the neck of whoever is in second place. And he did it with Perry. He did it with Newt. And he needs to keep doing it with Santorum. It's not a particularly--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
RICH LOWRY: --uplifting way to win the nomination, but I think it's inevitably what he has to do.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Basically what has worked for him is negative advertising--
RICH LOWRY: Correct.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --I mean, in-- in contest after contest. But what about that, Ed, I mean you're-- you're a Romney man here. Why is he having such a hard time connecting with the one part of the Republican Party?
ED GILLESPIE: Well, I do thing, the fact is that the Super PACs are new to the primary process. So they're new to the General Election process. But they are very new to the primary process and they are inherently more negative. They run more negative ads. They almost run almost solely negative ads and that does have a-- a depressing effect, I think in terms of turnout in Republican Party primaries. I don't think the damage is permanent. The fact is, once there's a nominee, the dynamic changes overnight. And it becomes a one-on-one race with President Obama. And this is a referendum.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah. Norah, one quick comment.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah. I think that's absolutely true. I mean once Mitt Romney presumably becomes the nominee, the fight will be joined. And there will be a very clear contrast between the two candidates. We'll see every day something on the economy, energy, all the major issues before the American voters.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I will just say I have never seen anything like this one and I've been around here for a long time.
Back in a moment with some final thoughts.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
BOB SCHIEFFER: If there is one constant in American politics, it's this: the price of gasoline is one of the most potent of all political issues. When we fill'er up the price stares us in the face right there on the gas gauge. Gas prices hinge on many factors some of which Presidents can influence; some of which they can't, China's gigantic need for more and more oil, turmoil in the Middle East, even the weather to name three that the President can't control.
Nevertheless, every candidate running for President blames the previous President if gas prices have gone up. Candidate Obama blamed George Bush just as Republicans are now blaming President Obama, which is why I found a story in yesterday's New York Times so interesting. Russia is a different place, but the story reminded us just how different.
To get elected Russia's newly installed President Vladimir Putin made a lot of expensive campaign promises, big raises, fatter pensions for doctors, lawyers and the military, even bonuses for having more children. We know about campaign promises, but here's what's different? Russia gets half its revenue from taxes on oil and gas. What Putin didn't tell the people is that to pay for all his promises he has to drive the price of oil up to a hundred fifty dollars a barrel, that's thirty dollars more than the current price, which made me wonder if energy prices go down Russia, will the next Russian candidate blame President Putin? Now, there is a bumper sticker for you.
Back in a minute.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you for watching. I'll be away next week, but Norah O'Donnell will be here for the whole show. I hope you'll join her.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
ANNOUNCER: This broadcast was produced by CBS News which is solely responsible for the selection of today's guests and topics. It originated in Washington, DC