RNC Chair: Party Will Win On Security

Political Players is a weekly conversation with the leaders, consultants, and activists who shape American politics. This week, CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talked with Mike Duncan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, about President Bush, John McCain and how he plans to defeat the Democrats.

Mike Duncan: Well, I certainly would much rather be in our position, than to be in the position of Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democrats. Because our process will come to a conclusion before our convention, and their process won't. And they're having a lot of problems with that right now.

CBSNews.com: Do you think Governor Huckabee staying in hurts your ability to unify and galvanize your supporters for the general election?

Mike Duncan: I've been around this for a long time. I started working in politics in 1972. And I've heard that argument time after time. Given the stark contrast, I don't think, in my lifetime, there has been a wider line of division between the two parties. And that's why, given the chance, our voters will come home.

Because they see that the alternative is a candidate who believes in higher taxes, more government--someone who believes in creating government bureaucracies to take choice out of healthcare, someone who believes in appointing people who legislate from the bench.

CBSNews.com: But isn't that exactly the charge a lot of conservatives have leveled against Senator McCain? That he's not as strong on conservative judges, that he's not as strong on taxes, that he's not as strong in support of the social issues. So are you sure the difference is stark enough to attract those Laura Ingrahams and Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters back into the fold?

Mike Duncan: Well, I am. Because, let's talk about the Democratic candidates just for a second. We've got a real interesting pick on the Democratic side, and it's certainly up to the voters to determine.

Barack Obama has an experience issue. And the question that the American people will ultimately decide is, is he ready to be commander-in-chief of the United States?

On the other hand, you've got Senator Clinton. And the issue there is trust. Can the American people trust Senator Clinton? And, currently, two-thirds of the people say that she would say or do anything to be elected president. More than half the people don't trust her. She has very high negatives. Maybe the highest for a candidate at this point, since we've been tracking it in a primary.

CBSNews.com: Is your argument more against the Democrats than for your Republican nominee?

Mike Duncan: No, I don't think that's the case. I was answering your specific question. It's very positive. On the Republican side, both of our remaining candidates have been talking about the values that we consider the core of our party. The core of our party is about the American dream.

And the values there have to do with smaller government--government that protects you certainly, but also a government that lets you go and lets you develop over a period of time, and lowers taxes. Because we know that lower taxes puts more money into the economy, which helps with that American dream.

CBSNews.com: But what about the charge-as one Republican said to me-that one of the reasons you're having trouble motivating your base is that Bill Clinton didn't grow the government as much as George W. Bush has?

Mike Duncan: Well, on the motivation thing, I hear that too. Let me go back and say that in 2006 we were disappointed with the results. And we learned some lessons. Look what we did in 2007. Look how successful the Republican Congress was in stopping the Democrats' spending.

Now we need to do more on the tax issue. We've got to make sure that these tax decreases become permanent over a period of time. But our base is motivated by that. We had over 800,000 individual donors at the RNC last year. We raised $83 million. We out raised the DNC by over $30 million.

While the Democrats are having a good turnout in their primaries, we are, too. In some states we're having record turnouts in our primaries. And I feel very good about the motivational base and our ability to come together this fall.

CBSNews.com: And you think those very loud voices, those radio talk show hosts, will come onboard?

Mike Duncan: Well, I have a historic perspective. We didn't have as much talk radio twenty years ago. But there were always leaders of the different factions of the party. And they always strenuously presented their case. But, at the end of the day, they looked at the choices they had.

This is a leadership contest between two people to be the leader of the free world. And they filter it down and they look at it through issues, and they come down and they ask questions. Can I trust this person to be the commander-in-chief? Is this person ready to be the commander-in-chief of the United States? And I believe that, given the opportunity, our conservative voters will be with us this fall.

CBSNews.com: Congressman John Shadegg of Arizona announced this week that he's retiring. [His spokesman has since said that he may reconsider.] He's the 29th Republican House member to say he won't seek re-election. Do you think that's a vote of no confidence in your ability to take back the Congress?

Mike Duncan: I think these are individual decisions that people make on whether they run for reelection to Congress or not. I mean you can go through the list. There are some who are running for higher office. There are some who have family considerations. Some feel that it's important that they want to do other things and go on. These are very individual decisions.

CBSNews.com: And let me ask you about what some commentators have called a broader enthusiasm gap between the two parties. 14.6 million Democrats voted on Super Tuesday. Only about 9 million Republicans voted. The Democratic presidential candidates, taken as a whole, have significantly outraised the Republican presidential candidates. Are you worried about that?

Mike Duncan: Well, they're also broke. One of the good things about this, is that we can look at all of the money that they've spent on each other. And money has some direct correlation with the turnout in politics. So again, I would much rather be in my position than Chairman Dean's position.

Let me talk to you about the number of people that turn out in primaries. I've gone back and looked at this historically. In the last nine primaries, there is not a correlation between the number of people who vote in the primaries and which party is elected in the fall. If so, Ronald Reagan would not have been elected. Or George Bush, 41, would not have been elected. So while all of this is very interesting, typically, the party out of power has more turnout in their primaries in presidential years than the party in power.

CBSNews.com: What is the big Republican vision for 2008? A number of commentators--David Brooks comes to my mind--have said that, lower taxes, smaller government and strong defense, has been the Republican message for 20 years. And it's very important, obviously, but that you need something more to offer voters for 2008. What do you think that is?

Mike Duncan: Well, our vision is--and it's a simple message. It's this whole vision of personal security. And are we better, personally secure today, more than we were on 9-11. And I think the answer to that is, yes. And why? It's because of the policies of the Republican Party. And we've got to make sure that those policies are in place. And that's the basic reason for government, and that's where we have to start.

The other is are we better off by having the 200 and some odd federal judges that have been appointed by the president. And the answer there is, yes. I mean, John Roberts and Sam Alito have made a significant difference on the court and the direction of people's lives in this country.

And finally, are we better off having lower taxes and less government. The tax cuts that a Republican Congress and President Bush put into place after 9-11 have led us to 54 consecutive months of growth.

We're having a downturn at the current time. The stimulus package was just passed. The president took the lead on that. These are basic issues. And these are basic issues that people filter through this idea of who they trust to be the leader of the free world.

CBSNews.com: But the president has an approval rating that's been stuck in the 20s or 30s for over a year.

Mike Duncan: The Congressional approval rating is lower than the president's approval rating.

CBSNews.com: But Americans don't feel better off economically than they did eight years ago. How do you turn that around?

Mike Duncan: It's getting our message out to the American people. And our presidential candidate will be the one who will be crafting that message. So that person can give you more of the specifics. But the basics are there that unite the party.