Face in the News

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention, Bob Schieffer sat down with Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on the convention floor in Charlotte, North Carolina where President Obama will be formally re-nominated later this week.

Before previewing the Democratic National Convention, the panel addressed campaign attacks from at last week's Republican National Convention.

"It was a week of personal attacks, empty platitudes, and the one thing you were left with is that they really think that lying is a virtue," Ms. Cutter said, referring to vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's speech calling Obama responsible for shutting down a Wisconsin automobile plant in which fact checkers have since disputed.

O'Malley continued with what he believes were important factors not addressed at the Republican convention. "You didn't see any new ideas for creating jobs. You didn't see George Bush. And you didn't see Mitt Romney's tax returns," O'Malley said.

When asked if Americans are better off now than four years ago, O'Malley said, "No, but that's not the question of this election." He added, "Without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recession, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars."

The conversation turned to expectations for the Democratic National Convention. "You're going to see a real effort to engage the middle class, engage the American worker, and say that we want to be positive about this country," Richardson said. "We're not going to be a bunch of negativists."

"What you're going to see in the next few days here in Charlotte is an agenda and a vision for America's future, where our middle class is actually growing," O'Malley said.

Cutter previewed former President Bill Clinton's DNC speech. "What President Clinton is going to say is if you're looking for a president who can grow the middle class, create that economic expansion, move away from the policies of the past that actually crashed our economy and punished the middle class, then Barack Obama is your guy," Cutter said.

For more on the convention conversation, check out Bloomberg, The Baltimore Sun, AP, The Washington Post, POLITICO, The Hill, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, National Journal, and UPI.

Also, don't miss the political roundtable with CBS News' John Dickerson, Dan Balz of The Washington Post, Trish Regan of Bloomberg, and Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson where the panelist preview the Democratic National Convention.

Watch the full episode of this Sunday's Face the Nation.