"Face the Nation" transcript: August 21, 2011
Below is a rush transcript of "Face the Nation" on August 21, 2011, hosted by CBS News Chief White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell, substituting for CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. The guests are Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., economist Mark Zandi and former party chairs, Ed Gillespie of the Republican National Committee and Terry McAuliffe of the Democratic National Committee.
You can watch the full show by clicking on the video player above.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Today on FACE THE NATION, the economy slumps even further as the 2012 presidential campaign takes off. President Obama had his own campaign-style bus tour through the Midwest this week, but it was the shaky stock market and the long jobless lines that held the nation's attention.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there.
NORAH O'DONNELL: As the President prepares yet another plan to create jobs, we'll ask Senator John McCain what he thinks might work and also get his take on the breaking news out of Libya this morning. Then we'll get some insights from Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics about what could be done to help the economy. And finally, we'll host a reunion of sorts of two party chairmen who butted heads during the Bush administration--former Democratic National Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, former Republican National Party Chairman Ed Gillespie.
It's all ahead on FACE THE NATION.
ANNOUNCER: FACE THE NATION with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. And now substituting for Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief White House correspondent Norah O' Donnell.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Good morning. And welcome to FACE THE NATION. Republican Senator John McCain is here with us on Capitol Hill. And we're going to start with the breaking news out of Libya this morning. Rebel forces appear to have surrounded the capital city of Tripoli and the city is under siege. We're seeing the heaviest fighting in six months of this conflict as forces loyal to Moammar Qaddafi are resisting the rebel advances. Qaddafi addressed his followers last night by radio but his whereabouts remain unknown. Joining us now is Senator McCain. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. You have been to Libya twice this year. You were one of the original proponents of military action. Is this Qaddafi's last stand?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-Arizona): Absolutely. It's a matter of hours if not days. And, once our UN-- our NATO forces under the leadership of the British and the French and others became more heavily engaged with the use of air power, I think it was-- something that was going to happen. So I believe that it's nearing the end and it's going to be a big challenge forming a new government, uniting a country that's never known democracy. We've seen the difficulties with other countries that made this transition. But we will be rid of a guy that has the blood of Americans on his hands. He will-- we will be rid of a guy who's practiced the worst kind of brutalities. And now it's going to be up to us and the Europeans. But I'd like to say that I'm-- I grieve a bit because this-- this conflict didn't have to last this long. United States air power could have shortened this conflict dramatically and unfortunately we chose not to. We led from behind.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You have met with some of the rebels. What would a new government look like and can we trust them?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Well, I'm sure we can trust them to the degree that they're people who want their democracy, freedom. There are many former American-Libyans who are there in their government. It's very difficult. There's tribal rivalries from a long time ago. They've never known democracy. They do have access to a lot of money. There's a lot of oil and a lot of assets there. But so-- I-- I think they can succeed but our European friends and we are going to have to help out a lot. And let me just say this will send a message to Bashar Assad. It'll send a message in Yemen. It'll send a message to other dictators that their time is nearing the end. This Arab Spring is echoing all over the world from Russia to China to Israel to-- and being manifested in a lot of different ways. But we-- since that young man burned himself to death in Tunisia, we are seeing a vastly changed world. And we're going to have to make some adjustments.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's turn now to the economy--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --which seems to have gone from bad to worse this week. President Obama announced that he will be unveiling a new jobs plan after Labor Day. And that will likely include some new spending, perhaps some stimulus. Given the brinksmanship that happened on Capitol Hill--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --over the debt ceiling debate. What's the likelihood anything with any new spending could pass through Congress or is this thing dead on arrival?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I-- I-- I would look forward to seeing the President's plan. I'd love to see it now so we could have a chance to digest it and see where we agree and disagree. But I'll look forward to it. But spending has been really proven not to be an-- a solution. Remember when we passed the stimulus the prediction was eight percent unemployment. We need to--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): Well, many economists say had they not done the stimulus, it would have been much worse.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I-- you know, to-- to say things could have been worse, it really isn't of much comfort to my constituents in Arizona, who are coming to town hall meetings to express their frustration. By the way, ten percent of the American people, I understand approve of Congress. Not one in that ten percent has approve-- attended my town hall meetings. But I--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): You are hearing it from people in-- in your town hall meetings.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: No. But-- but let me just say, what we really need to do is to create an environment for business to reinvest. The difference between the President's views and ours is we believe that business creates jobs. Overseas, there's a trillion dollars sitting overseas. Why don't we cut the corporate tax rate, give them a holiday and bring that money back? Corporations in America are sitting on a trillion-and-a-half that they're not investing and spending. Why not give them a climate where they can? Stop the-- the issuance of new federal regulations. Cut the corporate tax rate from twenty-five to fifteen. Close the loopholes that are so egregious and so outrage us to all of us. And-- and get into ways that we can eliminate the deficit which is our long-term problem and create jobs which are short-term problem. Only unless business will invest and create jobs and finally accomplish one other thing that's most frustrating to-- to me about this whole situation is it was the housing collapse that started this crisis. We took care of Wall Street. The-- your-- Mister Zandi will tell you and others will. They're doing fine, they're very liquid--tens of millions in salaries. The housing market is still in a situation of crisis. We have to put Americans in their homes, in mortgages that they can afford. And that I think is one of the largest failures we've had.
NORAH O'DONNELL: There will be a big debate certainly on Capitol Hill about this.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's turn to the Republican race for president.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Karl Rove said just this morning that he'd put money on Sarah Palin running. But he says she's got to get in next week as he says, quote, "You can only tease so many times in this cycle." Do you think Sarah Palin will run? Has she asked your advice?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: She has not asked my advice. And I do not know. And I certainly put some credence to Karl Rove. After all, he's one of the guys that beat him. So-- but-- but-- I think--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): Do you think Sarah Palin should run? Do you think she should--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I think--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): --should be president.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Look, that's a decision that is so personal. It's got to do with your family. It's got to do with all of these things. So it's hard for me to know whether Sarah should run or not. I think she'd be very formidable. And-- and, by the way, you know we have all these frontrunners and behind-- I remind you that in 2007 at this time, I was done.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: If you might-- if you might recall my campaign was doomed over.
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): Let's talk--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: A lot of things are going to happen. I hear, for example, that maybe Rudy Giuliani is going to get in the race. I think he'd be very formidable. And, by the way, congratulations to Tim Pawlenty for running a hard race, he's a good person.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's turn to the other Republicans who have announced that they're running for president.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: They all opposed the debt ceiling deal. You were on the Senate floor--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --during the debate--
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --and you criticized Republicans who opposed the deal. You called them Tea Party hobbits. Would you call Romney, Bachmann and Perry Tea Party hobbits?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: What-- what I was talking about, quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial was that there was a segment of the Republicans in the Senate, Republican senators that said, we cannot raise the debt limit until we pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The Senate would not pass-- would not get sixty-seven votes. So in my view it was unrealistic to tell-- we got to tell the American people the truth. That's one of the reasons why people are mad at town hall meetings. They don't think they're being told the truth. Tell them the truth. We could not have passed it. That was unrealistic. Hobbits are unrealistic. It was unrealistic to say we could raise a balanced budget amendment. And, by the way, I have always supported a balanced budget amendment in the Constitution.
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): Governor Rick Perry just entered the field.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Do you believe him when he says there's not a lot of science behind global warming. Listen to what he said.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Mm-Hm.
GOVERNOR RICK PERRY (Wednesday; Bedford, New Hampshire): I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data, so that they will have dollars rolling in to their-- to their projects.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You believe in global warming, Rick Perry does not. Can you elect someone president or can the Republican Party elect someone president who doesn't believe in global warming?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I think that people judge the candidates by their overall strengths and weaknesses. He's got-- brings a lot of strengths to the table because of the Texas economy and his experience as a governor. I don't expect to agree with every candidate on every issue and-- and I'm going to take a while before I support one of them.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And what about his comments about Ben Bernanke that his actions have bordered on treasonous. Is that a presidential comment?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: You know-- Norah, I can't critique each one of these candidates--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): You're the original straight talker.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I know it. But-- but for me to-- I know the pressures of being on the campaign trail. And very honestly, I also know what the experience of having-- had a few of your words plucked out. Remember when I said the fundamentals of America's economy are strong. Do you remember when I said the old jobs in Michigan weren't coming back and so--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): And what did that do to the state of your campaign when you said that.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I know but these are the things you go through. This is why campaigns are tough. It's not bean bag. My sympathy is with all of you. I'm glad I'm not with you.
NORAH O'DONNELL: On that note, Senator John McCain, welcome back. I know you're just back from Pakistan and overseas. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Thanks for having me on.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Thank you.
And joining us now from Philadelphia, Mark Zandi, who is the chief economist for Moody's Analytics. Mark, thank you so much for joining us.
MARK ZANDI (Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics): Good morning.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I want to ask you about something that President Obama told CBS. He said, he doesn't think America is in danger of a second recession. Do you agree with that?
MARK ZANDI: Yeah, I do. I-- I think --clearly the risks are very high. People are extremely nervous, businesses are shell shocked. But I-- I think with-- with some good policy making we'll be able to avoid a recession that-- you know, we've made some significant progress righting the wrongs that got us into this mess in the first place. And the most important fundamental reason for optimism is that American businesses have done a very good job getting their cost structures down, getting their profitability up, getting their balance sheets in order. Not-- not all businesses. You know, small businesses aren't doing quite as well as the larger companies. But in aggregate, they're doing-- doing very well. And given that, it's hard for me to see-- it's -- it's not a reason for-- for them to go out and hire people, which is what we need. But I think that is a reason for them not to lay off workers. And that's what would have to occur for a recession to ensue.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, let's take a look specifically at the stock market which is down eleven percent in August, down four percent just this week. We've had some wild swings in the past two weeks. What's going on here? What happened to the recovery?
MARK ZANDI: Well, we got hit by a string of unfortunate events. You know everything from four dollars for a gallon of regular unleaded to the Japanese quake effects and the impact on our vehicle sector. But most significantly it's the debt ceiling drama, the spectacle in Washington and of course the S&P downgrade, I think completely undermined confidence. And we were already very nervous coming out of the great recession. And this just was too much for us to get our minds around. And so I think we've all frozen. And that's reflected in these wild swings and the declines in the stock price-- stock market over the last couple or three weeks.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I've read your most recent Macro Forecast. You talk about policy makers need to do something to instill confidence in the economy. The President is going to announce this new jobs plan after Labor Day. What specifically do you think could help jumpstart this economy?
MARK ZANDI: Well, you know policy makers have to do two things at the same time. The first is they've got to follow through on the debt ceiling deal. You know, they've got to come to terms over the next several months with respect to some further future deficit reduction about one and a half trillion dollars worth. They have to execute on that in a reasonably graceful way. If they don't then we're going to get more downgrades, more turmoil in the stock market and we're done, we're back in recession. The second thing they have to do though is they have to provide some additional support to the economy in is very near term. And this gets to the-- the President's jobs package. And there are no--there's no magic bullet here. But there are a number of-- of things that can be done that would be helpful. I'll just name one. We can talk about others. And that is extending the payroll tax holiday. As you know we all have a--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mm-Hm.
MARK ZANDI:--holiday for this year. We need to extend that in 2012. Otherwise, the drag on the economy will be too great.
NORAH O'DONNELL: That is something the President has talked about multiple times, extending the payroll tax holiday. He also-- also talks about extending employment insurance. If the Congress does not pass that, how many jobs could that cost the economy?
MARK ZANDI: Well, if we don't extend the payroll tax holiday and if we do not extend the Emergency Unemployment Insurance Benefits which also expire at the end of the year, then that's going to cost the economy in 2012, calendar year 2012, about a percentage point of GDP growth. And that translates into about a million jobs by the end of 2012. So if we don't do those things, then the number of people employed will be a million less than otherwise would be the case.
NORAH O'DONNELL: So Mark, given what we just saw, the brinksmanship on Capitol Hill. There's a lot of things Congress has to do when they get back from August vacation. You're saying that if Congress does not move forward, this will be terrible for our economy?
MARK ZANDI: Yeah, we're done. I mean it's vi-- you know, the spectacle in Washington completely eviscerated confidence. We have all frozen. We can see what damage that has done. So, we can't go through that again. They have to get it together. And they have to come to terms and do it by the end of November.
NORAH O'DONNELL: All right. Mark Zandi, thank you so much.
And we'll be right back with a debate on President Obama's record on the economy. Plus, the latest from the campaign trail. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
NORAH O'DONNELL: And we're back with our round table. It's a reunion of sorts for former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and his counterpart back during the Bush administrations former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie. Thank you both for coming in this morning. Ed, let me start with you. A number of Republicans have criticized President Obama because he's talked about the urgency for creating jobs and yet he's on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Should he have postponed his vacation and called Congress back to work?
ED GILLESPIE (Former Chair, Republican National Committee): Well, I don't begrudge the President for taking some time with his family and taking a vacation. I'm sure it's got to be exhausting wrecking an economy as big as the United States is. So, you know, he should take a little time. I think, two weeks. The optics of it is not great. And going to the vineyard as the Democrat elite call it is probably not the right signal. And following it-- you know following after a taxpayer-funded campaign swing through the Midwest in 1.1 million dollar bus. I find myself thinking I wish I had started a website I thought about a while ago, which is IfBushHadDoneThat.com. And if President Bush had done something like this, there would be a pretty big hue and cry, I think.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Terry let's talk about the state of the economy.
TERRY MCAULIFFE (Former Chair, Democratic National Committee/Chairman GreenTech Automotive): You bet.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Because we now have three quarters of Americans disapprove--
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Mm-Hm.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --of President Obama's handling of the economy. How do you get elected when three quarters of Americans don't approve the way you're handling the economy?
TERRY MCAULIFFE: I--I think what's important is when President comes out with his plan in September, lays it out for job creation. People are frustrated. I've talked about this many times. We've got to create jobs in this country. And I am so sick and tired of the political speeches. Everybody talks about jobs. We need a plan to create jobs. I'm in a business. I'm creating thousands of jobs now. I'm selling clean green automobiles all over the world. I know what it is to create jobs. All these folks up here not one of them have probably ever met a payroll. We've got to have a plan for a long-term strategic goal to get our manufacturing going. We need to sell products. We need to make sure that our children are getting the education so we can compete globally. And I think that's what the President-- I don't want to call it a speech. He-- it is laying out his plan and his vision about how we get this economy moving. We need jobs in this country. And we've got to work with the Republicans. I thought the disgrace in Congress the last six months was an embarrassment to our nation. All this fighting over raising our debt limit, which is basically saying we're paying our bills, I think did a travesty-- tragedy to our country, to our image. We've got to get it back and we've got to work together to do it.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Terry, it's not like the President hasn't talked about creating jobs, the need to create jobs. We actually did a-- looked back at our CBS records, Mark Knoller--
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --and the President has talked about and made a pitch for creating jobs in a hundred and seventy-one speeches just this year.
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Six of those speeches had jobs in the title. And now, he's going to have another jobs speech in September. Is there some truth to Republican claims that there is a lot of talk but not a lot of action by the President?
TERRY MCAULIFFE: I think he's had a very difficult time getting anything through the Republican House of Representatives. They have not passed any legislation on job creation since Speaker Boehner came in.
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): But you just said yourself that you're sick of the speech making, what's the plan?
TERRY MCAULIFFE (overlapping): By everybody, you bet.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah. Mm-Hm.
TERRY MCAULIFFE: But we need legislation to get this done and the Congress won't do it. All the Republicans in Congress have done is many bills to roll back financial reform, to allow the banks to go back and write their own rules. That's all you can say have-- has come out of the Republicans in Congress. The President said he's going to come out with a plan. Already Republicans are saying oh, we don't want anything to do with it. You have got the speaker-- the head of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell saying my goal is to defeat Barack Obama. The public is sick of it. We need our children-- we need jobs for them. We need to create manufacturing in this country. We're losing it to China and to India and to Brazil, Germany. We can't go from a nation where we're importing oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to buying wind turbines and solar panels from Germany and China. We got to make products here in America, buy American, make them here in America.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Yes. I--
ED GILLESPIE: The-- the fact is another speech is not going to help. You can't talk about jobs and the need for job creation when your policies are killing jobs and that's the-- that's what's been going on. The President can, you know, complain about bad luck. The reali-- reality is it's bad policy. And in terms of Republicans in Congress, they're trying to repeal the policies that are resulting in the-- in the--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-Huh.
ED GILLESPIE: --9.1 percent unemployment that we're seeing today, all-- ending all this wasteful spending. The regulatory onslaught that's going on in terms of-- stifling job creation starting with the employer mandate in the President's health care bill, which the CBO estimates is going to cost eight hundred thousand jobs in our economy. We've lost 2.4 million jobs since President Obama took office. The unemployment rate has gone up from 7.8 percent to 9.1 percent. The President promised when they passed a stimulus bill that it wouldn't go above eight percent. It's been above eight percent for thirty months. And the problem is his policies and Republicans are trying to correct that by repealing the job-killing policies of this administration.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I want to play for both of you something that Congresswoman Maxine Waters said this week about the President and connecting with voters on the very issue of jobs, listen.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS (Tuesday; Detroit, Michigan): We're supportive of the President but we're getting tired, you all.
(Crowd cheering)
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: And so, what we want to do is-- we want to give the President every opportunity.
WOMAN: How long?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: To show-- to show what he can do and what he's prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity. But our people are hurting.
WOMAN: Yes, they are.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: The unemployment is unconscionable.
WOMAN: That's right.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: We don't know what the strategy is.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Terry, do you know what the strategy is?
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Well clearly, we-- we're going find out when the President comes back in September. I wish and I have said this, I wish that the President and the Congress had taken this up in January, when they all came back. So--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But the President had a-- a tour through the Midwest?
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: In areas where in Iowa where unemployment is six percent--
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --in Minnesota where it's 6.7 percent. Those are area-- those are not the hard hit areas. Should he have gone to the places that Congresswoman Maxine Waters was talking about?
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Sure. In fairness to the President, he has traveled extensively to all parts of the country. I mean listen, we could go back and look historically and it doesn't do-- add any good taking our time. Bill Clinton left the greatest economy in the history of our country. He did it bypassed the Deficit Reduction Act in '93, which cut some benefits from some important programs to the core constituencies of our party, who were mad but also raised revenues. It led to the greatest economic expansion in the history of our country--twenty-three million new jobs, everybody benefited. We went through eight years where President Bush, they drove the economy off the cliff. President Obama is now trying to get it back moving again. It takes time. It took eight years for them to do what they did to the economy. It's taking time for the President to get going. And you got to look at everything.
ED GILLESPIE: Norah, I can't-- you can't let that go unaddressed. The fact is under President Bush we had fifty-two months of uninterrupted job creation in our economy, the longest stretch in the history of our country. And the fact is the housing crisis that was at the center of the economic meltdown in the fall of 2008, was due largely to the policies affecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that President Obama as senator the biggest beneficiary of their contributions supported. So we can argue that round or flat and-- and the blame game, which President Obama plays constantly. But the American people know things have not gotten better under this President's leadership. And there's a failure of leadership. The fact is there's a growing sense out there, I think the biggest threat to his re-election is the growing sense that this President may be in over his head. And you're starting to see that take root with voters and especially independent voters setting aside the policies, a concern about failure of leadership is very threatening to his re-election.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's turn to the Republican Presidential race. Ed, let me start with you. Do you think the Republican field is set? Do you think Chris Christie gets in?
ED GILLESPIE: I thought a while ago the field was set. I'm not so sure now. I think there, you know, I-- I--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Are you hearing that Chris Christie wants to get in, the Governor of New Jersey?
ED GILLESPIE: I put credence in rumblings, you know, to that effect. And I-- I think that if, you know, if you're him, if you're Paul Ryan, if you're Sarah Palin and you're looking at the-- at the dynamics right now, of course, you're weighing the possibility of getting in. And one of the things that factors in that there is thirty-nine percent approval rating. If you're Republican, you're probably thinking, well, in 2016, I can't wait because there is going to be a Republican in the White House and I don't want to run in a primary. So if you're going to-- if you're going to run for President, it kind of speeds things up a little bit.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But let me ask you about some of the controversial comments that have been made by the newest entrants into the field, the Texas Governor Rick Perry. He's made some comments especially in his book Fed Up. He referred to Social Security in his book as, quote, "...a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal." He compared Social Security to a, quote, "bad disease" and that it was set up like a, quote, "...illegal Ponzi scheme..." Can you elect a Republican to the White House who thinks Social Security is a bad disease?
ED GILLESPIE: Well, I've not read the book. I know this the social--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): That's okay. We gave you the excerpts.
ED GILLESPIE: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Social Security for us is going to be one of the most significant issues. I think entitlement reform as a whole is going to be a major issue in this Presidential election. And the-- the fact that President Obama has failed to embrace any kind of significant entitlement reforms, that's part of the problem, that's why we have a AA-plus bond rating--
NORAH O'DONNELL (overlapping): And what about--
ED GILLESPIE: --now as opposed to a AAA bond rating because of this unwillingness to tackle entitlement reform at all.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Your friend Karl Rove has said that Governor Perry should cut the cowboy talk. Do you agree?
ED GILLESPIE: Well I think you know Governor Perry is going to run on his record, that's the thing to do. I'm not in the-- I'm neutral in the-- in the primary, I'm not in the business of giving advice to-- to any of the candidates. But the fact is that Rick Perry has a strong record of job creation, which is the most important issue in the electorate, I think in the election today. And he should focus on that. I suspect he will.
NORAH O'DONNELL: All right, Ed Gillespie, Terry McAuliffe, the debate will continue, great to see both of you this Sunday.
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Great to see you Norah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I appreciate it.
ED GILLESPIE: Good to be back.
TERRY MCAULIFFE: Good to be here, Eddie.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And we'll be back in a minute. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
NORAH O'DONNELL: That's all for today, but be sure to tune in next week when Bob's guest will be General Colin Powell and Congressman John Lewis as we honor the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial on FACE THE NATION. And we'd also like to thank the Jones Day law firm for the view of the Capitol. I'm Norah O'Donnell. Thanks for watching.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
ANNOUNCER: This broadcast was produced by CBS News, which is solely responsible for the selection of today's guest and topics. It originated in Washington, DC.