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April 22, 2012 2:00 PM

"Face the Nation" transcript for April 22 with Senator Lieberman and ex-USSS chief Basham

BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you. And what about Governor Romney?

ERIC FEHRNSTROM: We'll-- we're-- we're-- we're in constant discussions with your staff, and I'm sure that we'll find an opportunity in the near future to bring him on the show.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Thank you so much, Mister Fehrnstrom.

ERIC FEHRNSTROM: Thank you.

BOB SCHIEFFER: And now to the Obama campaign side of the story, and Stephanie Cutter, the President's deputy campaign manager. Ms. Cutter, of course, we also would like to see President Obama whenever he can find time.

STEPHANIE CUTTER (Obama 2012 Deputy Campaign Manager): Dully noted.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, you heard Eric Fehrnstrom. He says Mitt Romney has seven months to connect and kind of fix this image problem. What do you think?

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Well, I think that he's been running for President for the past six years and this image problem hasn't changed, so I'm not sure exactly what the next seven months are going to do, particularly when you're spending your campaign really running a wholly negative campaign. You know, I listen to Mister Fehrnstrom talk about how this election is about capability and vision. Well, let's take a look at what just happened this week. In a-- a nationally televised interview, when asked what message Mitt Romney had for Barack Obama, he said, "pack your bags." Now, I think the American people want to make their own decision about this election. They don't need Mitt Romney to tell them. And then Mitt Romney went on to follow the President to Ohio. The President was there talking about what we've done to train workers for new and better jobs that pay higher wages and the need to invest in worker training so that we can be competitive with countries like India and China.

Now Mitt Romney went to a plant that closed under George Bush, and he tried to blame Barack Obama. And that's the type of campaign that he's running. And instead of laying out a vision of where he wants to take this economy in his speech in Ohio, he had a speech full of distortions and dishonesty. And now, you don't have to just take this from me. You take it from members of the-- of Governor Romney's own party, Mitch Daniels who said this week that he was disappointed in Mitt Romney for not laying out that vision and for running a wholly negative campaign.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you expect to-- to hear Mitt Romney talking about his years as governor? He didn't talk much about it during the-- during the early primaries. But as Eric Fehrnstrom said this morning--

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Right.

BOB SCHIEFFER: --he had a very good record there.

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Well, I think that the facts show something very different. And I think-- you know, CBS had a poll out this week that really showed that people didn't really know much about Mitt Romney. And Mister Fehrnstrom said it himself. Well, here's what they don't know. Mitt Romney as governor, despite coming in based on his private sector business experience and making enormous promises what he was going to do for the economy, similar promises that he's making right now, led the state to forty-seventh out of fiftieth in job creation. Now the states that were behind Massachusetts were largely states that were hit by Katrina. He said he was going to reduce the size of government. He increased the size of government by more than six percent a year. Manufacturing jobs left that state at twice the national average. So that's the record of Mitt Romney and despite a balanced budget in Massachusetts, he left the country-- the-- the state in debt, the largest per-capita debt-- debt of any state in the country.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you this: clearly these polls show that-- that people do like his approach though on how to fix the economy. Gas prices are very high--

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Mm-Hm.

BOB SCHIEFFER: --there's still a lot of people out of work. Do you expect that to change before Election Day?

STEPHANIE CUTTER: About Mitt Romney's experience on the economy? Yes, because I don't think they have any understanding of what the experience is. You know if you look at what the President has--

BOB SCHIEFFER: But I'm talking about the record that the President's having to run on.

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Right. Let's talk about that record. You know since the-- the end of the recovery-- end of the recession, we've created four-- 4.1 million jobs. Manufacturing is the highest it's been in two decades. We've-- we're on track to double our exports. You know, we're sending more kids to college, reducing their-- their debt coming out. That's the record of this President. We're making investments to-- to grow this economy for the long term, make sure everybody pays their fair share and hard work pays and responsibility is rewarded. That's the record of this administration. If you compare that to Mitt Romney's record--now, it's not just what he's saying on the campaign trail it's what his actual record is. It stands in stark contrast. You know Mitt Romney praised George Bush for his economic policies in 2004, and the-- and as the-- the country was coming out of the Bush recession and just this week we heard a Republican spokesperson to say Mitt Romney and the Republican policies are just Bush updated policies. We know how that story ends and I don't think the American people want to go back there.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Stephanie Cutter, thank you very much. Next time, of course, we'll let your campaign go first, and we'll give the Romney campaign the last word but we'll be doing this from time to time.

STEPHANIE CUTTER: Okay.



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