"Face the Nation" transcript: October 16, 2011

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you all both. I mean, while you all are concentrating on politics, a lot of people that don't have a job out there. Unemployment is still way up there at nine percent. The President put his plan out there this week, Congress couldn't even figure out how to vote on it. Where does that all go now, John?

JOHN DICKERSON: Well, it's interesting. We heard Herman Cain picking up on this attack-- similar attack to the one that White House is making on Mitt Romney. He says I'm the candidate of Main Street, Romney is Wall Street. That's what this is about. The people of Main Street who don't have jobs, I'm speaking to them. But there-- the-- the large group out there that don't have jobs who are frustrated, are frustrated with a politicians. And the politicians with their sound bytes and even their 9-9-9 Plan may not necessarily be talking to the people who don't have the jobs and are frustrated with a political system. They look at and they think nothing that you do is going to actually affect my lives-- life or change it.

BOB SCHIEFFER: What is he going to do now, Norah?

NORAH O'DONNELL: He is going to keep on this bus tour. I mean, the President is on a new bus tour to North Carolina and Virginia, two key battle ground states that, of course, Obama was able to turn blue in this past election. And they're going to start breaking up in pieces. The jobs plan and hope that Republicans can sign on to some of-- some of the parts of the President's jobs plan. But the White House still firmly believes that they're-- that the jobs plan is popular with the American people.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think it has any chance, any part of it, any chance of passing, Julianna?

JULIANNA GOLDMAN: Well, probably the element that has the best chance is getting that payroll tax cut extended that expires at the end of the year. The White House would like to see that extended on the employer side and on the employee side. As well making the argument if Republicans push back against that, then the White House can come back and say, hey, we're for more tax cuts now than the Republicans are.

BOB SCHIEFFER: John, where do you think it goes?

JOHN DICKERSON: Well, I think you probably do get something in the end. The question is, you know, do people look at this and say, you know, they're just-- this is the minimum amount you can do. And we don't give you necessarily any credit for doing this very little bit that doesn't affect us in our life.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Does anybody here think the election will be about anything but the economy?

JULIANNA GOLDMAN: Well, no. And that's the other problem with what's likely to get passed from the President's jobs plan, the payroll tax cut extension and some of the others they might help the economy prevent another going back into a recession but they don't necessarily create jobs.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, we have just run out of time. I'll be back in a moment with some final thoughts.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, they will finally make it official today. The ceremony to officially dedicate the memorial to Martin Luther King Junior will take place on the National Mall in Washington. Neither rain nor snow, as they say, can deter the postman on his rounds. But a hurricane did and rightly so postponed the dedication of Doctor King's massive statue. So many of the people who had come to Washington or were on their way to Washington when the hurricane blew through last month came back this weekend to do the honors. The complications seemed fitting somehow and I wonder if Doctor King with a sense of irony might have smiled. Complications were nothing unusual for him. Everything he did was complicated and seemed impossible to many but him. The statue itself was and is controversial. Some just don't like it. Some saw one thing in it. Others saw entirely different things. Just as people sometimes saw only what they wanted to see in Doctor King. Just getting the memorial finished and getting the ceremony done was sometimes two steps forward, one step back, as it usually was with Doctor King's work. Some are still not happy with the memorial. But it is there now for all to see. Massive, imposing, but still only a reminder of the man it honors. His great work is his real memorial and will outlast any reminder, perfect or imperfect, that mortal man may undertake.

Back in a minute.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, that's it for us today. Thank you for being with us here on FACE THE NATION. We'll be right here next week, same time, same place. Thanks.

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