Face in the News: Govs. O’Malley and Jindal talk 2016, future of GOP; McCain weighs in on Ukraine and Benghazi

(CBS News) -- With the nation’s governors in town in Washington for their annual meeting, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer sat down with Govs. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and Martin O’Malley (D-MD), both national figures and potential 2016 presidential candidates.

Schieffer asked Jindal about his remark in a 2013 speech that the GOP has “got to stop being the stupid party.”

Jindal stood by his wording. “As a party we can’t just be the party of no,” he said. “As a party, we have got good solutions.” Nonetheless, Jindal was highly critical of the Affordable Care Act, which is perhaps the signature law of Obama’s presidency. “Why not delay all of the mandates in Obamacare, which has become such a job killer in our economy?… The Republican Party should be the party of growth and opportunity.”

Will Jindal run for president? The governor was coy on the subject. “The honest answer is, I don’t know,” he said.

After Jindal’s interview, Schieffer turned to O’Malley, who all but declared in an interview this month with The Washington Post that he is running for president in 2016. If he chooses to do so, the governor will face an uphill struggle. A Baltimore Sun poll released this month showed that residents in his home state of Maryland preferred former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – another potential contender – by a margin of 10 to 1.

Schieffer began by asking the governor if he would seek the nomination. “Well, I’m looking at that,” O’Malley said. “But the most immediate responsibility I have is to govern Maryland well.”

O’Malley also touched on the rollout of the president’s health care law, which was marred by a heavily botched Web site launch and widespread enrollment difficulties. “The kick-off of the websites was certainly rocky,” O’Malley acknowledged. “We squibbed the kick-off.” But O’Malley emphasized that he was working to increase health care enrollment in his own state.

The two governors’ remarks received coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Politico, The Times-Picayune, The Associated Press, McClatchy, Real Clear Politics, and Mediaite.

Also on the broadcast, Senator John McCain offered his take on the latest violence taking place in Kiev, Ukraine. He was adamant that Russia stay out of the struggle and insisted that the Ukrainian people are striving for a future rooted in ties to the West. “They want to be Western, Bob,” McCain said. “That’s what this… hundreds of thousands in the square was all about. They don’t want to be Eastern.”

For Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, McCain’s message was clear: Stay out of the fight. “I think the message has to be sent to him, let the Ukrainian people determine their own future. And a partition of Ukraine is totally unacceptable,” McCain said. He added, “If I were Vladimir Putin today at the end of the Olympics, I’d be a little nervous, because the people… of Russia have watched this transpire, and they are tired of the crony capitalism and kleptocracy that governs Russia today.

McCain also responded to comments National Security Advisor Susan Rice made on Meet the Press this Sunday, in which she denied that the Obama administration had misled the American public about the nature of the attacks in Benghazi, Lybia. “I’m almost speechless,” McCain said. “She read talking points that we are now beginning to believe came from the White House… The information was totally misleading, totally false, and for Susan Rice to say such a thing, I think it’s a little embarrassing, to tell you the truth.

McCain’s comments were picked up by The Los Angeles Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, Agence France-Presse, Newsmax, UPI, and CNN.