>> schieffer: today on face the nation thon memorial day talking politics and presidents, past, present and future. >> as summer kicks in, it is already getting hot on the campaign trail and the mud -- or was that mud? >> you know, that speech was more like a housewife distortion. >> i don't know whose record he is proud of the most, mine or his. >> if you look at him now he doesn't have a clue what to do to get this economy going. i do. >> bottom line, the polls are closer than ever, and the campaign nastier, romney's people love painting the president as a european socialist and the president's people actually compare romney's old company to a bloodsucking

bat. >> it is like watching a friend bleed to death. >> schieffer: we will check in first with top advisors from both campaigns, former gop party chair ed gillespie and the president's one time press secretary robert gibbs. we will talk with indiana's long time senator richard lugar, who lost his primary earlier this month to a candidate who wants less, not more compromise to break the washington gridlock. then on page 2, our summer sunday book break, as we talk with the authors of three new books. robert merry, author of the upcoming where they stand .. the american president in the eyes of voters and historians, time magazine's nancy gibbs and michael duffy, authors of the president's club, and cbs news contributor and presidential historian, douglas brinkley

whose new biography cronkite comes out this week, it is summertime in washington, and this is face the nation. captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. chieffer, and good morning, again, and welcome to face the nation and what better time to talk a little politics. top advisors to both candidates are with us here this morning, we are going start with robert gibbs who is the senior advisor to the obama campaign, then we will hear from ed gill less city senior advisor to the romney campaign. mr. gibbs, last week, several democrats weighed in, and expressed really some dismay with the tone that the obama campaign's attack ads have taken, particularly the ones attacking mitt romney's tenure at bain capital, quite a bit of it in the beginning of the broadcast, but the wall street

journal reported yesterday the campaign would actually become more aggressive with these attacks. they seem to be buying more time for these ads. have you done some polling? why so aggressive so soon? >> bob, i don't think you need polling to understand why people will have a visceral reaction to mitt romney's time as head of bain capital and let's be clear, this is the central and only point that mitt romney brings up that in the words of his campaign would make him an economic savior for this country. you saw that tape with some steel workers whose plant in kansas city was loaded one debt, jammed into bankruptcy, mitt romney and his investors walked away with tens of millions of dollars and, look, they were very good at that, making money for themselves and for the investors, but what bain capital never did was focus on job creation. that is not what bain capital does. it loads up companies with debt,

it takes money out of those companies and pays those investors. it is not about job creation, and that is what mitt romney is running on. and look, we have seen this experiment in massachusetts. he did the same thing when he ran in 2002 in massachusetts and took that state's job creation numbers to 47th in the country. so we have seen this experiment, we have seen it in massachusetts quite frankly, we saw it in 2007 and 2008 where we turned our economy over to speculators and it crashed on the middle class. >> why, then, are some republicans seem to be so concerned about it? like corey booker, the, you know, the mayor of newark? they say it is painting the president as being anti-business. i mean, chuck schumer and senator, the two senators from new york have even declined to comment on these ads. >> well, this is nothing to do with being anti-business. this is a criticism and a good criticism, quite honestly of mitt romney's only thesis for

being president of the united states, that he is some kind of economic savior. he is very good at making money for his partners. he is not so good at creating jobs. we have seen that time and time again, and i think the american people and voters deserve to understand what mitt romney means when he says he has the keys to the being economic savior. >> schieffer: one other, one of the refreshing changes when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he is just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned negative ads, all campaigns seem to think or are the basis of all campaigns. >> bob there is going to be a choice in this election, mitt romney has been running for president for many years of his life, and has been very critical of this president's tenure of this president's policies, and we are certainly happy to talk a little bit about mitt romney and his record of not creating jobs

in virtually every step of his life. that is what this campaign is going to be about. are you going to be better -- who are you going to be better off with in the next four years and i don't think there is any doubt that when this election is said and done it will be close. but people of this country will reject the sort of speculation type economic gains that mitt romney is quite good at for himself and for his investors and instead look for an economy that is growing, that is built to last, that continues t to the job creation we have seen and not quite frankly return to the failed policies of the past. >> schieffer: let me read you something that tom friedman wrote in "the new york times" this morning. he said, and i quote, barack obama is a great or for, orator but he is the boston president i have ever seen when it comes to explaining his achievements putting them in context, connecting with people on a gut level through repetition and there by defining how the public views an issue.

is he right about that? >> no. i appreciate mr. friedman's free advice, but, look, if you look at the ad that we have got running in battle ground states right now it talks about exactly what this president inherited and what he achieved in saving an auto industry that mitt romney wanted to go bankrupt and have a million jobs leave with it, in creating 25 consecutive months of private sector job growth, making sure that financial reform is instituted so we don't go back to the time in which wall street was writing its own rules. all of those things, that is what mitt romney wants to do, mitt romney wants to go back to the failed economic policies of 2007 and 2008, explode our debt with these huge tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that didn't work the first time. that theory failed, it crashed right on the middle class, it was the worst economic crisis that i think most people in this country will ever live through

and mitt romney wants to use his speculation background at off shoring and outsourcing and go back to those times. and the american people don't want that. >> let me ask you this. what do you think will be the impact, if the supreme court throws out the healthcare law? you know, bob, i don't know what the impact would be on either side of that. i think that if one listens to the full argument that was made in front of the supreme court that they are likely to uphold the healthcare law and i think it is important for millions of americans who have things like preexisting conditions, who now can get health insurance and can't be told by an insurance company that for instance they are no longer -- they can't be covered because they have some sort of preexisting condition. >> schieffer: all right. mr. gibbs, thank you and now as paul harvey used to say here is the other side of the story. here is ed gillespie. so what is your side of -- >> there are a lot of different things to talk about there, bob, but number one let's start with the attack on governor romney

as, you know, in terms of his experience in the private sector. the fact is that bain capital, there were a number of investments that didn't perform well, in the case of bain it was less than five percent of the investments that ended up in bankruptcy, the fact is 80 percent of the companies he invested in grew, and that means that jobs were created if you look for example at sports authority, 15,000 jobs, if you look at brighter horizons 15,000 jobs, staples nearly 90,000 jobs created, this is a reflection of the factness and i think what you alluded to with mayor booker, rendell and others the concern hostile's rhetoric to private investment and job creators is highlighting the fact his policies are hostile to private investment and job creators, that's why we have been at eight percent unemployment or higher for the past 39 months. that is why there are 23 million americans today who are either unemployed or underemployed or left the work force entirely and why millions of people have lost

their home and ended up in food stamps and poverty because this president is hostile to job creators, in his policies and in his rhetoric if you look at the obama care bill he passed the congressional budget says it cost our country 800,000 jobs if you look at the punitive taxes he wants to impose on small business owners that generates two out of every three new jobs in our country historically and on the keystone pipeline to keep that from going forward, thousands of jobs almost immediately that is the problem that i think mayor booker and rendell were trying to warn us about. >> schieffer: isn't ate fair thing to say that governor romney is the one who started this? i mean, he is the one who came and started talking about all of these jobs he had created. when, in fact, i mean, venture capitalists don't sit down at the table and say let's think about some plan to see how we can create a bunch of jobs. they sit down and say, let's figure out how we can make some money here. i am not saying that is a bad thing but that is -- that is reality. >> there is correlation, bob, between making money and growing

a company and job creation. that is what president obama doesn't understand because he never has been in the private sector and doesn't really understand how it works i think that is why his policies are so hostile to job creation, in his view we would be better off if we had political appointees making decision on where our money was spent like so lind dra, solyndra he touted as a success story from his failed stimulus package it has gone bankrupt over 1,000 employees have lost their jobs and taxpayers lost $535 million over half a billion dollars, because that is their view of the world, we would be better off with political appoint t's deciding to put our taxpayer money at risk and reward campaign donors as was the case in solyndra to put private capital at work. >> schieffer: let me get your take from something the president said last week, let's watch this. >> he doesn't want to talk about what he did in massachusetts. but he does talk about being a business, a business guy. he says that it gives him a

special understanding of what it takes to create jobs and grow the economy. even if he is unable to offer a single new idea about how to dor that, no matter how many times he is asked about it he says he knows how to do it. >> schieffer: so i mean, what is yourñi reaction? doesn't he have to start talking about something that he is going to do and not just what the president has done wrong? >> well, bob, maybe you haven't machine the first two ads of the romney campaign which talked about what governor romney would do if he were president on day one. repeal the job killing obama care bill, make sure that we do start deficit reduction by slowing, you know, by cutting government spending as opposed to mounting up piles of debt, you know, nearly doubling our debt already in just three and a half years of president obama's term, and fair trade with china make sure they are not manipulating their currency, approve the keystone pipeline and start these jobs, and his two ads are substantive and about policy and going forward in an agenda for the future, in

contrast to what we have seen from obama. >> schieffer: he doesn't talk much about passing the healthcare law in massachusetts and doesn't talk much about -- >> he does actually if you look at the qualifications that we cite for governor romney to be the next president it is the private sector experience which is important but it is also his time as governor, the fact is, during his time as governor, the unemployment rate zero dropped to nearly six percent to 4.7 percent, there was net job creation of about 40,000 jobs, that is more than one state in his one term as governor than president obama has been able to generate in the country during his time in office so that is a pretty good contrast, balance the budget in massachusetts without raising taxes and did that with a democratic legislature, the fact is his record in massachusetts as well as his business experience and as well as the leadership he displayed in staving the olympics for the united states in leading it in the salt lake city olympics when the international olympic committee was threatening to pull it from the united states which would have been a huge embarrassment for our country and turned it around that is one of his successes as well and that's why

many americans see him as a strong leader with a positive agenda going forward. >> schieffer: do you think we will ever see him on one of these sunday morning interview shows? i know he does fox, but we would love to have him sometime. >> i am sure you would. >> schieffer: as would meet the press and the -- >> you know, the fact is we will take our message to the american people, you see him and saw him talking to school children last week, giving a speech on education reform and how, have great respect for the shows and proud to be with you today but the fact is how we get our message to the american people and convey that to to the voters we will have to consider a in number of options in that regard and i am sure the sunday shows are one of them. >> schieffer: well i know the school children are always happy to see him i want to make sure he knows we would be happy to see him too. >> i will carry that back to boston. >> schieffer: thanks to both of you for being here today i think we saw the outline for what this campaign is going to be about and we will be back in one minute with senator richard lugar.

>> schieffer: and we are back now with indiana republican senator richard lugar, senator lugar, thanks for being here with us this morning. you, i must say compiled a remarkable record in the years that you spent in the senate, the legislation that just you and democrat san nunn offered to help the soviet union destroy nuclear weapons that could have fallen in the hands of terrorists may well have changed the course of history, and yet here you were beaten in a primary by an opponent who said what the country needs is not more compromise, but fewer compromises. on reflection, do you think you could have done something to turn this around? how did this happen, senator? >> well, it happened in large part because we had a republican primary, a large portion of the republican party of indiana

believed apparently in the idea of individualism as opposed to community, a sense of compromise or a sense of talking across the aisle in the past most hoosiers and i think that is still true of a majority of them had supported me in our efforts both in foreign policy, farm policy, their situations to forge things that worked, and so i intend to continue to do that. we have opportunities in the weeks and months ahead while i am still in the senate to try to make a difference as our country really heads toward the rocks and the economy, and we have foreign policy problems and even while the campaign is going on with the president, we have got a potential for war, for conflict, for real difficulty. >> schieffer: well, do you think that perhaps it was something other than ideology? i mean, some said that you were kind of out of touch with your state. >> yes. some said i was 80 years of age which is correct, that i served

far too long for 35 or 36 years, far more than you want to. and furthermore, some county chairman says we haven't seen you dick at our lincoln day dinners for a while, you have been so busy touring over in russia or ukraine or belarus or in asia or what have you, doing during your recesses we wanted to see mor more of you and i understand that and they make a point. i am just saying that in terms of service to the country as i saw it the, i think our priorities were right, we have been very much involved in indiana throughout this period overtime with all sorts of programs, but this was just not a year in which -- >> schieffer: it does say something about the republican party, do you think, or is this something unique? >> well, i think indiana was unique in the sense that the outside groups, whether it was freedom works or club for growth or grover nordquist group or what had you had no other

playgrounds, indiana was it because this was a place where there was a incumbent republican senator, not many running in fact so they are able to come in early on with hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars with negative ads which turned around what usually was an approval that i had from 60 to 70 percent for all of these years, and it went down real fast in the last two or three weeks under that barrage. >> schieffer: so do you see that as the reason you got beat, these outside groups that came in, these super pacs? i guess what i am driving at, and because we are seeing what appears to be a very negative campaign shaping up for the presidency right now, do you think it is possible to be re-elected running -- or be elected running a positive campaign anymore? >> i think it is very difficult, if my example is any solace to anybody. obviously i still think it is possible and there is a lot to be done. in other words, the country really is looking for answers,

whether it be the taxation problem, the budget problem, our problems with our allies, our enmy abroad, there have to be people who are putting it together, who bring about a sense of community in addition to individualism. this was the beauty i thought of the ronald reagan administration. the russian outlining all the ways in which reagan, not only was able to compromise but bring about extraordinary results by bringing people together. and that is clearly true of the time sam nunn nun and i came together and we were sent by reagan to geneva and began our talks with the russian. that has been a 20 year period and still goes on. .. >> schieffer: the situation in syria right now what are your thoughts on that? >> essentially that the united nations situation is not working out very well, it appears that our country is attempting to suggest to the russians that they ought to get with us and

try to work out something, such as happened in yemen or other countries in which the assad regime would decide to reresign but at the same time would not be murdered in the process, that there would be some potential evolution. >> schieffer: has the president done enough? has he shown enough leadership in this situation? >> i think he has been very cautious and i think he is cautious because he is in the process of withdrawing our troops along with nato from afghanistan, pivoting our policy toward the china and the east, toward a situation of using robots and the ability not to have to send in troops. it is a difficult situation. but when you talk about syria and talk about troops or intervention, the president has been very cautious. i think properly so. >> schieffer: are you going to campaign for the man who beat you in the primary, richard murdoch or are you even going to vote for him? >> well, i indicated that i hope

that republicans in indiana will support him because i have worked -- my leader mitch mcconnell in getting a republican majority, i would say that i have offered advice to my former opponent and now candidate as to trying a way he could be a constructive senator and how he could make any difference whatsoever, i hope he will, in fact, begin to adopt some of those ideas, but for the time being, i don't plan an active campaign. >> schieffer: senator, thank you so much, and we want to wish you the very best. >> thank you very much, bob. >> schieffer: we will be back in a moment with some thoughts about memorial day.

>> today is going to be an important day for us.

>> schieffer: on this day, when we remember those who gave their lives for their country, let us also remember the families they left behind. in 1972, vice president biden lost his wife and infant daughter in a horrible car wreck. friday he talked to a group of military families about the kind of loss that only those who have experienced it can ever really comprehend. >> the christmas shopping and the tractor trailer broadsided them in one incident, kiltd two of them and, well, i have to tell you, i used to resent, i knew people meant well they would come up to you and say, joe, i know how you feel, right?

>> i knew they meant well and you knew they were genuine but you knew they didn't have any damned idea. right? isn't that true? i mean, that, that black hole you feel in your chest like you are being sucked back into it. for the first time if my life i understood how someone could consciously decide how to commit suicide, not because they were deranged, not because they were not nuts, but because they had been to the top of the mountain and they just knew in their heart they would never get there again, there was never going to get, never going to be that way ever again. there will come a day, i promise you, and you parents as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. it will happen. my prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later.

>> schieffer: and may that be the wish, the prayer from each of us on this memorial day. back to you. this portion of face the nation is sponsored by xerox, with xerox you are ready for real

golden gate bridge today. birthday bash. plus we are less than 75 hours

away from the start of the 5 your fax season. and the progression on the dumbarton bridge is progressing right on time the palace. we're talking about the closure of the dunbarton and bridge and on the north side, the golden gate bridge is a huge party expected today. first let's go to the dumbarton bridge. they're working around the clock to seismically retrofitted to the bridge. the three day closure this week and provide the time and space to rebuild the expansion churro it is. create a seismic drawing to.

we got an update from caltrans earlier. we are continuing to work on that. we have finished removal of concrete and the original joined yesterday. today we are continuing to put in the new joint, the still play to the mix up the pace of the new joint and a lot of paving this afternoon. call caltran says so far the bridge is expected to be open on time on tuesday. the san mateo bridge is one way to go as an alternate route. and speaking of transportation isn't the ferries service is bad in service today prepared workers picketed upper the

the golden gate bridge looks pretty good for being 75 years old. the milestone is being celebrated a big way today with a fire show that is said to be more expert spectacular. happy bird bid to the golden gate bridge and celebrates. this road will be close, these to end this one. we are expecting a lot of delays and there are he is among everyone else telling people to not drive because it's going to be jammed. we are expecting thousands of people, we may have hundreds

of thousands of people, it's really hard to estimate. a festival of music in booze and most of the 1400's porter produce. these people here are jumping for joy hoping it won't be a flop. were welcoming everyone in to our doors. the bridge did a little bouncing of its own with the most weight that it could ever handled. there will be no bridge walk this time around. we really thought about how to spread the it crowd out and how the festival out. we are having a golden gate festival. today's anniversary bash for the bridge will be along the shore between fort point and marina green.

it closes to a vehicle traffic at 9. you could find a list of festivities of the bridge in festivals in its earlier days on our website. a teenager was shot and killed in san as they overnight. investigators believe it was gang-related. investigators say they found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. the other victims were taken to hospital without non not life threatening injuries. and the suspect charged in this era market now being is due back in court on thursday. he was arrested after air

investigators found the missing 15 year-old girls dna in his car and his dna in the girl's purse. self bay police say that scam artists are target a older bay area residents. fire season starts tomorrow for several bay area counties. therefore contra costa and alameda and more counties. the lack of rain we have seen throughout the year has created dry

merrill is expected to bring drenching rain and reoccurrence to the coast of carolina. burlington is packing winds up to 50 mi. per hour. and also has coastal flooding likely. coming up taking a look memorial day events here in the bay area. and a tradition that goes back more than 50 years. and a conversation with the golden gate bridge district president coming up next. essentially a sunny sunday and then we will begin to warm things upper around the bay. details coming up on the other weather.

for thousands of the area of volunteers memorial day

weekends began its at the cemetery. more than 50 years old this tradition has been running. they placed more fibrous overt fallen soldiers. barbecuing this weekend? take care when using those grow brushes. believe it or not, of more than a thousand people have sligo swallowed those wired fresh brussels. when he barbeque you may think of bacteria in more other food related illnesses but there is more than that the just landed this man and the

emergency room. it was hours before they realize it was this, a 1.5 cm bristle. use to clean the grill prayed it took the doctor for iras to remove the bristle from his esophagus. more than a dozen people have reported similar incidents over the past three years. it was nearly 12 years ago that the brizola almost killed this firefighter. he doesn't remember any warnings on the brussels back then but now many bristles come with warnings come with the growth brush. we couldn't find one morning at this store. and the say, this happened

to me before i know what to do. it sounds obvious, but check your wire brush bristles to see of any are loose. if you have a consumer question or complaint had to our website and click consumer watched help. speaking of grilling and pat getting out expect patchy fog. pet expected to clear out. it is 54 degrees at s f o. 56 degrees in santa rosa. big question is how will skies people, will have more on that.

happy anniversary to all the bay bridge. the project came on time and under budget. the project came a.m. phil take a while to scour out the low clouds. and then after that bill warm about that much. the low pressure over the mid west has the finally relaxed its eye and gripped overt the beit bridge. you can see that later in to the date, most of the bay area will clear. but as nighttime comes around the low clouds will come in just

off the peninsula and pack over the shoreline. stay tuned, and will be led the fourth of july which is also always a little dicey when it comes to the bay area. 62 degrees, auvergne my low of 50. chicago and new york expect under showers. beckon the burial for the day we will hang out with the low clouds. 72 degrees in milpitas. along the shoreline it will be chilly. with the to the east bay, temperatures mostly in the mid- 70s today. but the couple degrees higher than what we had yesterday.

72 at nevada. sausalito is holding up at 60 degrees. we're back into the 80s in the inlands. today we begin a little bit warmer and then accelerate that trend into the work week. mid to low 80s by friday. have a great sunday. a world famous icon marking hurt some effect anniversary in the bay area. janet r. reilly said down with us and talked about the celebration. where is the best place to

enjoy all of these festivities today? the best place is right on the water front from four. right down to the marina green. there's going to be a history tend to. a future tons, a vintage car prayed it's going to be fantastic. last time we had a big-we close the bridge off and everyone got to walk on net and then if platinum wire me doing it this time? because it clapton. it survived but we do not want to go through it again. nothing is going to be happening along the bridge, there's going to be plenty happening along the

waterfront. this evening we are closing it off from 9:00 to 10:00 for traffic and that's because of the traffic. we will be closing the sidewalks from 6:00 to 9:00 for safety reasons. it is held up through earthquakes and wars, now it is facing financial problems, you are looking at the the said after a deficit, what is going on? it is tough fiscal times. we're doing things to try to close that deficit. we have done many things to try to close that deficit and because we are a transit system we are high least seven ties.

we don't win the game is over on the wire story any of the team. gina quan it now willing to give up on the gold and state warriors. she says that it is not a done deal shot her city is moving ahead with plans for a thousand acre coliseum. we turn to mayor adlai and former allaire but it brown i'm not trying to take away anything from oakland. i support everything that they're doing. but there is an opportunity here for all the fans to enjoy a a waterfront the arena. they could enjoy our scenery. you said that one of your

biggest regrets as mayor is not putting in a arena downtown. absolutely. believe me, and we should have something comparable if not better than madison square garden. were you could watch basketball and other kinds of interest board and all within walking dissert. that's what the mayor is talking about. the big question is whether the states are going to allow it. so sending it over to private entities, but the questions raised there. we are prepared for them. that's why we want to read and by gavin newsom. he is part of our rear. there is also the bay area

conservation district that we must respect. that's why you want to gain flexibility in the front end. we want to incorporate their ideas because the warriors won that. with the selling points for this arena? bringing more people to the waterfront in using the waterfront in a positive way. if you talk to joe who is the head of our gusts of travel, you'll be confirmed that the number won gaps is because we don't have this every neda hoes and complement the musical been used. it is the family going to be

interesting. they're trying desperately to hold onto the raiders.

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>> schieffer: and that's it for us. but before we go, we want to take note of a big birthday out in california. it turns out the golden gate bridge is 75 years old today. that's it for us today. have a great captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ,,,,,,,,,,