"Face the Nation" transcript May 13: Same-sex marriage, bomb plot leak, Mother's Day panel

ANITA DUNN (Democratic Strategist/Former White House Communications Director): You know, I think the reason that you see such a substantial gender gap in the polls, Bob, is because actually there are two good reasons-- President Obama's record and Mitt Romney's policies. So I think if you look at the Obama record in terms of women, it is really ground-- groundbreaking. He took office. He set up a council on women and children, so that he could look at how the federal government's policies affect women, something that had never been done before. And whether it's the Affordable Care Act, which makes sure that having a baby is no longer a preexisting condition for women that children get covered, no matter what their preexisting conditions. Whether it's been the expansion of the EITC, which helps working women keep more of their money. Whether it is, you know, policies across the board that this President's policies for women have been extraordinary and Mitt Romney has a backward-looking attitude, particularly, when it comes to women.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right.

ANITA DUNN: But I think it will come out.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Okay, I guess I best let Bay respond to that.

BAY BUCHANAN I would love to respond Bob. You know, I think this is where it's going to happen and if there's any been-- any war, whether it's deliberate or not, on women, it's clearly come from the Obama White House. Because, if you look, we all know that more jobs have been lost, more homes have been lost during this administration than since the Great Depression. But maybe many of us don't know that most all of the jobs lost by Americans in these last three years have been lost by women. And if women of all people don't care about their kids, that is what drives us. And what are we seeing in children, fifty-three percent of the kids that we worked so hard to put through college do not have any jobs whatsoever. Women care about this enormously. They need that security to take care of themselves and their own family, especially single moms, something I was. And when you have an economy that's not providing the jobs, either for themselves or for their kids, that is a voting issue that I promise will hit-- will see and remember.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right, let me-- we'll-- we'll come back to this. I want to go to the other side of the table here because I want to-- I want to ask you all as-- as journalists, this issue, this gay marriage thing that-- I mean, the President really-- I think the election moved to another stage when he made that announcement. Melinda, how important is it going to be? Could this be a defining issue or some people say no it's still going to be about the economy and that's it?

MELINDA HENNEBERGER (Washington Post): I think it will still largely be about the economy. This will lose him some votes maybe in North Carolina, which he won in '08. He will have a tougher time given that they just put kind of a triple padlock against same-sex marriage in that state. But I think politically, he'll pick up, too. He'll pick up some enthusiasm from younger voters. But it was really important for him to do that because, in a larger sense, I think it's a win for him. If the Democratic Party and if his campaign is about anything, it's about fairness. And so there was that disconnect and I think it's also important for his credibility, which is huge in any presidential election. People, I think, didn't believe that he did not support same-sex marriage, much as they a lot of people don't believe Mitt Romney doesn't really support it, given that he used to. I think it was important for the President's credibility for him to make that statement. And it works against Mitt Romney in that way for him not to say this time.

BOB SCHIEFFER: So, Norah, walk us back on this. How did this come out at this time?

NORAH O'DONNELL (CBS News Chief White House Correspondent): Well, I think the-- the vice president sort of got ahead of himself, in announcing what was an administration policy, administration aides were very open about expressing their frustration with Vice President Biden for doing that. And then leaked-- which I thought was pretty interesting-- that the Biden went-- Biden went into the Oval Office and apologized. I mean I ask all the time about conversations in the oval office and I'm told, conversations between the President and the vice president are sacrosanct. We don't want to talk about those but they were willing to tell us that the vice president apologized. I think that just sends a message about who's in charge in the White House that's why they wanted to do that. But on the policy issue of same-sex marriage, I don't think it in the end it's going to be determinative in this election. The economy and jobs is still important. Same-sex marriage and the different positions are going to motivate different groups. They're going to get them enthused, that's going to happen any ways we get closer to November. So we will have both sides raise money.

BOB SCHIEFFER: But--