>> today on "face the nation," mitt romney picks his man. >> the next president of the united states, paul ryan. >> not quite. let's try that 15. >> every now and then i'm known to make a mistake. i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you this-- he's going to be the next vice president of the united states. glord congressman paul ryan of wisconsin has lots of appeal to both side-- >> we had the largest deficit and the biggest federal government since world war ii. >> but democrats like the pick, too. they say his plan to cut medicare and social programs is sure to drive voters their way. ryan is with mitt romney in north carolina this morning, and we'll get the latest there from jan crawford. the obama campaign's stephanie cutter will square off against the romney campaign's eric

fehrnstrom, and we'll hear from one-time republican candidate newt gingrich, who was not all that keen during the primaries about paul ryan's medicare plan. >> i don't think right wing social engineering is any more desirable than left wing social engineer. >> plus we'll have analysis from all sides. "newsweek" daily beast contribute ort david frum. "washington post" columnists michael gerson and ruth marcus. david frum from "the week," and our own john dickerson. it's about our vision of where we go from here and it's all on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> substituting for bob schieffer, nancy cordes. >> good morning, again, and welcome to "face the nation." bob schieffer is on his way to high point, north carolina,

where he'll be sitting down with mitt romney and paul ryan later today in their first joint interview which will air on tonight's "60 minutes." so you'll want to tune into that. for now, with the latest on this new republican ticket, i'm joined by cbs news political correspondent, jan crawford, who is in mooresville, north carolina, this morning. we're learning there was quite of bit of subterfuge involved this keeping this running mate pick under wraps. tell us about it. >> reporter: nancy, it was almost something out of a spy novel the representation they went to keep this a secret. it involved paul ryan when he was going to meet with romney in boston to be offered the pick, almost in disguise, sunglasses, a baseball cap, casual clothes so he could move through the airport and when he was going to virginia to be announced he sneaked out the back of the house and went through the woods to get his ride, and last night on the campaign plane romney and ryan came back and talked to the reporters and seemed almost tickled to death they kept all this a secret. there is clearly a strong, good rapport between these two guys

as they were talking to us last night. nancy, i have never seen romney as energized and enthulzed as he was in his campaign speeches yesterday in virginia. and we'll see some of that tonight in bob's interview. >> big crowds behind you. jan crawford in north carolina with the romney campaign. thanks so much. joining us to talk about mitt romney's pick, are deputy campaign manager for the obama campaign, stephanie cutter and eric fehrnstrom, senior adviser to mitt romney. eric, let's started with you. describe for us how and when mitt romney offered the vp spot to paul ryan and what he said when he accepted. >> well, he called him on august 1, but on that day, the governor had just returned from his overseas trip. he had made his decision that he wanted paul ryan to join him on the ticket. he reached out to him, set up a meeting, and the meeting took place on august 5. that was last sunday.

they met at the private home of beck myers, who is a top aide, and handled the vice presidential selection process. and it was in a private meeting in beth's dining room where governor romney offered paul ryan a spot on the ticket and he accepted. >> eric, there were, obviously, a number of politicians under consideration-- rob portman, tim pawlenty. what was about paul ryan that made him the choice for mitt romney in the end and was this a difficult decision? >> it wasn't difficult at all for the governor. this was a big, bold, courageous choice by governor romney. it indicates that he's not only interested in taking on the jobs crisis in this country but he also wants to address the fiscal crisis as well. this is no time for complacency. we have 23 million americans out of work. we have more people falling into poverty than at any time in our recent past. and we have massive debt and deficits that imperil our future. and i think in the selection of

paul ryan as a running mate, mitt romney has claimed for the republican ticket the mantle of change. i think it also indicates that mitt romney is going to be running an issue-oriented campaign, waged on big ideas and not engage in the kind of nasty, negative politics that we've seen from the barack obama campaign. >> well, stephanie, what do you think about that? was this the running mate that the obama administration was expecting? and is he a big, bold choice? >> well, i definitely think he's a big, bold choice because it really does say something about mitt romney. it says something about mitt romney that he's picking someone who has a budget plan under which mitt romney would pay less than 1% in taxes, but the middle class would pay more than $2,000 more in taxes. it says something about mitt romney that he picked someone with a budget plan that cuts 10 million cuts, cuts their college scholarships for 10 million kids. cuts 200,000 kids off head start. cuts veterans' benefits, clean energy benefits, all the investments we need to grow our economy.

and it says something about mitt romney who chose someone who has a budget that really would be the end of medicare as we know it. it would increase costs on seniors and throw them into the private market. so, that is big, bold, and courageous. but i don't think that's the prescription the american people are looking for. you know, i heard eric talk about the type of campaign that we're running, compaid to the type of campaign mitt romney is running. we'd love to have a substances debate. as of yesterday, mitt romney put some substance on the table. we'd love to talk about it. the romney-ryan budget is not a budget for growth and prosperity. it's a budget for redistributing wealth to the top. taking it from the middle up to the top. and-- >> eric i want to ask you about that. you knew this was the argument you were going to hear from democrats by picking paul ryan. is mitt romney tying himself it every element of the ryan plan, the cuts to college loan programprograms and food stampsd medicaid. can he separate himself from that or is he embracing it? >> let me just answer stephanie

by saying this is the same type of garbage talk from the obama campaign we've heard almost since day one. they've started off with petty, untrue characterizations of mitt romney and his record, and have now grown to massive exaggerations. look, paul ryan has a budget. barack obama has no plan. he's the sitting president, and it's amazing that he has no policy agenda for his second term. no new ideas about how to get this economy moving. no new ideas about how to create jobs. no new idea about how to control spending. he promised to cut the deficit in half. instead it exploded in size. he added $5 trillion to our deficit. we're making a bet, we're making a bet that americans are more interested in a campaign that's waged on real ideas, including entitlement reform, and that a campaign-- a substantive campaign conducted on the high ground is going to tromp the type of petty, negative politics

that we're hearing from barack obama. they're really running a campaign without a conscience. if i had to give their title i'd call it "50 shades of mud." >> i think we've seen petty negative politics from both sides this week and we'll get to that in just a moment. stephanie, what about the argument from the republicans who point to ryan's plan and say it may not be popular but at least he's making tough choices. we have a $15 trillion debt, entitlements that are exploding, and at least he's willing it put hez plan out to the table, while the president, at least initially did not embrace his plan, the bowles-simpson plan. >> nancy, all you have to do is go to the white house web site to see the president's plan. it's budget out there for more than a year. it's a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan that does make those tough choice but it makes tough choices on both sides. it's not an ideological document like paul ryan's plan. it actually asks the wealth tow pay their they are share. cuts waste from spending

programs we don't need but still allows us to make the critical investments we need to grow our economy. i want to answer eric for a second he thinks that talking about the substance of paul ryan's plan, the romney-ryan plan, is mudslinging, then what type of election do you think this is? these are the issues that matter. everybody upons the fundamental issue at stake here is the middle class. if you're not going to talk about how you're going to strengthep the middle class. how can you have a substantive debate. >> but you said he talked about his plan on the web site but what about on the campaign trail, stephanie. mostly on the campaign trail we hear him talk about raising taxes on the top 2%. where are the other bold plans that require sacrifice from the rest of the company. >> whitehouse.gov, nancy. it's there. he has given speeches to government about it. >> what is the president's plan-- >> everybody knows-- >> what is the president's plan for entitlement reform. >> ask economists what they

think about paul ryan's budget. >> instead of people to go to a web site tell them-- >> i'd be happy to tell you what the plan is right now. >> what is it? >> well, you know, ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more. cut waste from the government. reform medicare. more than $300 billion in savings from medicare, on top of the savings we've already achieved. i heard mitt romney deride the $700 billion cuts in medicare that the president achieved through health care reform. you know what those cut are? taking subsidies away from insurance companies. takes rebates away from prescription drug company. is that what mitt romney wants to protect, and paul reinprechted those cuts in the budget. and that's the only thing-- that's a serious debate. that's how you have a substantive debate about the issues. >> ...you're not just cutting the social safety net drastically, but you're changing medicare significantly and

you're lowering taxes very significantly on the wealthy. >> yes. nancy, let me just say, i agree with stephanie. we should cut waste from the federal budget, but we need to go further than that, stephanie. we need to put on the table serious substantive proposals that address the entitlement problem. these are the cost drivers in the budget. mitt romney has talked about, with respect to social security, lengthening the retirement age, and chang changing the benefit calculation such that upper income earners, you know, for our future retirees will not be earning benefits at-- as fast a rate as they used to. with respect to medicare. he has two core principles and they happen to synch up with paul ryan's. we're not going to do anything that will affect currence beneficiaries, those close to retirement age. but for future retirees, we need to create a new premium voucher program that that preserves the

existing medicare system as an option but also introduces new private health care options so that we can have competition and choice. if we do that, then we'll finally begin to get a hold of the massive budget busters in the federal budget and put us there-- >> there are a lot of-- there are a lot of similarities. >> i just told you in great detail-- >> what about the fact your campaign ended up-- >> i told you in great details and specifics what mitt romney's plan is with respect to entitlements, and your response is barack obama is going to cut waste for the budget. >> we don't have a lot of time so i want to move on to another topic. >> i do have one question for eric. does eric think it's right for mitt romney to pay less than 1% in taxes but you're asking senior citizens who rely on medicare to pay up to $6,000 more for their health care? does he think that's right for mitt romney to pay less than 1% in taxes but the middle class gets a $2,000 tax increase. that's the budget paul ryan put on the table that you just wrapped your arms around.

>> you just admitted there's only one candidate in the race who has cut benefits for current medicare beneficiaries. that's barack obama. and he he didn't do it by the way to create-- >> i heard-- >> i want to ask you a question on another topic. eric, i want to ask you about foreign policy for a moment. obviously, paul ryan knows his way around a budget, but is it a problem that neither of the two men on your ticket have any significant forepolicy experience? i mean we're in a time of great instability in the middle east, a civil war in syria. tensions with iran. is it a problem that these two men, while very experienced, don't have much experience on the world stage? >> i think paul ryan has the same amount of foreign policy experience that barack obama had when he was sworn in as president. look, paul ryan's been in the congress for 14 years, longer than barack obama when he decided to run for president. he's got oversight responsibilities for the budget,

including the defense budget. he has leaders, governors, generals, members of the military brass calling him for advice and support for their programs. of course he's prepared. one of the first criterions that the governor had for the selection of his running mate was he wanted somebody who was capable of stepping into the top job if circumstances ever called for that. he's got that with paul ryan. but i think what americans will really like about this ticket is the way they complement one another. mitt romney has 25 years of private sector experience, a wealth of knowledge about the economy, and what paul ryan brings to the table is deficit-cutting credibility, and also knowledge about every nook and cranny of the federal budget. and as i said, this indicates mitt romney is serious about solving the jobs crisis in this nation and also the fiscal crisis. >> stephanie, very quickly on foreign policy. >> well, i think that the most important criteria is the person at the top having the judgment on foreign policy that you need in a commander in chief, and i

think that we saw just a week and a half ago, that mitt romney didn't have it. he went on a foreign policy trip, and ended up insulting every one of our allies, and embarrassing this country. so i think that was proof positive that mitt romney doesn't have the judgment necessary to be america's commander in chief. and whether paul ryan can help him with that, we'll see. but i think it's the person at the top that you need to see. >> stephanie cutter, eric fehrnstrom, thank you both so much for joining us this morning. i'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from both of you, and we'll be back in one minute with former republican presidential candidate newt gingrich. >> i'm excited for what lies ahead. i'm thrilled to be a part of america's comeback team, and together we will unite america and get this done! ves inside yo.

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this morning. great to see you. back in april, president obama said the ryan budget so far to the right it makes your contract with america look like the new deal. how does the ryan plan look to you now? how much of it do you think that romney should keep? how much should he discard? >> well, i think the basic thrust of the plan, which is very parallel to what romney proposed is the right direction. we have to go to a sustainable, long-term budget that gets us back to a balance that accelerates the growth of jobs, and that is affordable. and we have to recognize-- you look at american cities going bankrupt. the greek government just announces 54% unemployment among young greeks. you look at the kind of problems around the world from spending being out of control, and you have to say to yourself, somebody has to have the guts to stand up and offer a road map, if you will. and i think that the effort that ryan has put in-- in my mind it makes him an extraordinarily exciting choice because you now have a national leader who is

capable of talking in detail with the american people about some very complicated topics. and that's a very unusual moment in american history. >> i traveled to wisconsin after ryan unveiled his budget in 2012, and it was highly controversial, even in his home district. how does it play with voters? i mean, the obama campaign is already saying this is going to help them in states like florida and pennsylvania with large senior populations who are going to be worried about his medicare plan. >> well, see, this is an example of i think what's wrong with the obama campaign what we just saw a few minutes ago in that dilog. the romney team doesn't touch anybody who is over 55. so it's a nonevent. it's just plain a lie to run a campaign trying to scare people who are over 55 about this plan. and because paul ryan listened, he came back with the a democratic senate, ron wyden of

oregon, they developed an improved medicare proposal. if you want to keep the current system, you can. if you want to keep an alternative, you can. almost exactly what members of congress have. you have the choices. i don't have-- i think you can have an honest debate about it, but when you start with an obama plan which took $700 billion out of medicare in order to put it into obamacare, i think you're going to have a pretty hard time being credible in trying to scare people about paul ryan. >> let's take a look at the specifics will of his plan. here are the broad outlines. it calls for $5 trillion in spending cuts. that's huge, more than two times of simpson-bowles proposal. it's but he also cuts tax revenue almost as dramatically, by $4 trillion, primarily by bringing tax rates down for wealthy americans and reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. so this this is the opposite approach from simpson-bowles.

it would take until 2040 before we have a budget surplus. is that the right approach? why not ask everybody to make the sacrifice. >> one of the great debates we're not going to have but should is the governmentable budget office. ryan and romney ask do you want a government with a smaller economy, bigger government and fewer jobs? that's the honest choice. >> but that was not always your take on his plan. you called it right wing social engineering. what has changed for you. >> the one thing that i wanted to back in may of 20 loaf, was that he eliminated medicare for everybody. he came back with ron wyden. he listened-- one of the things i give paul a lot of credit for is he really listenes, and he came back with an approved medicare plan that ron wyden--

the only bipartisan plan-- and it basically allows people to stay in the current system. he met my only objection. the bigger debate is simple-- you have an obama administration that represents government as usual, slow economic growth as usual, the worst economy since the great depression, and their answer is to do nothing. it's like all these mayors of cities going bankrupt, they're sitting here saying protect everything. well, stephanie just talked about the problem with student loans. the problem today under the obama plan, even if you can get through college, you can't find a job. so i think this will be a straightforward debate. do you want a more dynamic economy, more jobs, a fast or growing country, and a smaller government. or do you want a much bigger government with a much bigger deficit with fewer jobs and a much smaller economy. >> you heard eric fehrnstrom essentially say it isn't a problem that neither mitt romney nor paul ryan have any significant foreign policy

experience. but you've been on the world stage. you know that this is complicated. you know that, you know, these are very thorny issues and we're looking at a lot of them right now. how do they deal with that foreign policy gap? >> there's a sophisticated-- as a scientisted washington reporter, i'm going to shock you-- i think it is an advantage they're not part of the current mess. remember, first of all, paul ryan is about the same age as john f. kennedy and theodore roosevelt. you can have young, aggressive leadership that's pretty impressive. mitt romney has the same amount of foreign policy experience as ronald reagan. ronald reagan defeated the soviet empire decisively in eight years. i would rather have romney and ryan rethinking everything than have the current team continue-- look at the disaster in the middle east. unrest in libya. egypt. gaza. syria. iraq. iran. pakistan, afghanistan. >> but do you feel that you know what mitt romney's foreign

policy philosophy is? do you feel like he laid it out when he went overseas? >> overseas terrorist a-- was not an effort to lay out a philosophy. i think i know how mitt romney will approach foreign policy. he will be very cautious. he will think about america's interests first. he will distrust the state department. now, i have to tell you, as somebody who you point out has a lot of experience in this business. i am for any candidate who cuss trusts the state department over a candidate who trusts the state department. >> newt gingrich i really appreciate you bringing your inshiites morning. obviously you've had a lot of experience debating mitt romney and you know paul ryan is a tough debater as well.

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go long. announcement why was of the picture-perfect-- majestic battleship, swelling music, enormous crowds. as you saw at the top of our show, it all went off without a hitch except for this key moment at the very end of romney's introduction. >> the next president of the united states, paul ryan. ( cheers and applause ). >> during the ensuing applause, romney realized the error, or someone told him and he quickly jumped in to correct himself. >> every now and then i'm known to make a mistake. ( laughter ) i did not make a mistake with this guy. but i can tell you this, he's going to be the next vice president of the united states. ( cheers and applause ) >> nice save. romney's not the first presidential candidate to get swept up in the moment. here was then-senator obama four years ago. >> so let me introduce to you

the next president it's next vice president of the united states of america. >> there are other similarity betweens the two announcements. both mr. obama and mr. romney revealed their pick on a saturday. both chose a longtime member of congress. both their prediction ran catholic, but that's about where the similarities end. joe biden was 65 years old when he was chosen. paul ryan is 42. ryan is steeped in the budget. biden had a reputation as a foreign policy expert. and while biden accepted the vp spot after two failed bids for a presidential nomination, ryan spent the earlier part of this campaign season denying he was even interested in the job. when he appeared on "face the nation" last march, he said, "if i wanted to be president or vice president so badly, i would have run for president." well, when the call comes, i guess it's hard to say no. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is rudy.

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leaving us now, but for the rest of you we'll be back with more on campaign 2012 and mitt romney's new running mate with a reporters' round table. we'll talk about whether the ryan pick was a bold or risky choice-- maybe both and be sure to tune into "60 minutes" for bob schieffer's interview with mitt romney and paul ryan. back in a moment. ,,,, ,,,,

paul ryan pick, "washington post" columnist ruth marcus, politico's roger simon. david frum from "newsweek" and the daly beast. schurnlg a democrat strategist and columnist for the week put we're going to start with cbs news political director john dickerson out in the campaign trail in mooresville, north carolina, with mitt romney and paul ryan. john, what did you take away from watching this debut for paul ryan yesterday? >> reporter: hello, nancy. i think the biggest thing is ryan has-- his goal is to, one, reintroduce mitt romney. he's talking about romney's business career, his family. he's using his introduction to

the country to reintroduce the candidate. and that's important. mitt romney has a lot of work to do in terms of the way voters think about him, imagining him as the president. then ryan also played the sort of traditional attack dog role, pointing out the differences in problems with obama administration. then his other role-- and we'll see how this develops-- is that he is sort of the ideas man. the campaign is arguing that this is a bold choice because it's a choice to run on ideas and specific policies. but when ryan talks, that's not really what he talks about. and so the question in the end will be how much do-- does the romney campaign want voters to think about the idea that they have a plan and how much do they want to get into the specifics of those plans? glord and we heard jan crawford talk about how the two men had personal chemistry. what's it like watching the two of them on stage in i understand the crowds have been larger, more enthusiastic than they have been in the past for mitt romney alone. >> reporter: that's absolutely

right. here in north carolina, the crowds are crazy compared to your normal romney crowd. it's not only standing room only but the crowd inside is just as big as the crowd outside. the rapport between the two men is very good. one of romney's adviser, bob white, who worked with mitt romney at bain, said that paul ryan was hired at bain. that's pretty high praise in this atmosphere. they get along quite well, and there's a generational vibe here a little bit. paul ryan is as old as one of mitt romney's sons. and so, the campaign is hoping that he brings a kind of youthful energy on stage. and that's certainly-- has been evident in the last couple of days. >> cordes: so, ruth, i'll ask you, given everything you heard from john, does that mean that mitt romney made the right pick? >> i don't think so, with all due respect. i love the idea of an

ideas-driven campaign, but this seems to me to be extremely risky. and i'm going to go out on a limb. it feels like it could be sarah palin with substance and a paper trail. >> cordes: what do you mean by that? >> what i mean, is, look, vice presidential nominees are important to the extent that they tell us something about the presidential nominee. what this tells us about the presidential nominee is he has decide and there have been lots of questions about what does mitt romney really believe? he now has told thawls he really believes in paul ryan's vision of america, and paul ryan's budget. i thought it was very interesting that eric fehrnstrom in your interview didn't exactly answer the question, "does this mean he accepts the ryan budget," and all the other things paul ryan has suggest along the way. i think what we're going to see along the next few weeks is a continuing series of well, does he think this? does he want to have private accounts for social security? does he want to cut domestic spending quite this dramatically? that's a different campaign than we've been runging. and i think a pretty risky

campaign. >> cordes: but, david, if one of the knocks on mitt romney, maybe biggest knock by the obama campaign, is he didn't have any specifices, that he spoke in broad generalities. doesn't this kind of solve that problem. this solved the specifics. >> look at the top half hour of your show. you talked about medicare, pell grant, every minute mitt romney and barack obama are talking about jobs, barack obama is losing this election. every minute they're talking about something else, barack obama is winning this election. and when you just spent-- and the candidates just cooperated-- in spending 30 minutes talking about something else. barack obama cannot win reelection on his job performance. he needs to change the ballot question. and mitt romney and paul ryan are cooperating with barack obama in changing the ballot question. and they need not to talk about what they want to talk about. they need to talk about what the american people want to talk about. that just got a lot harder. >> cordes: it's definitely nice to talk about issues.

but, michael, one of the arguments the obama campaign is making is that this is a sign that the romney campaign is worried about its base. and needed to make a pick that energized its base, rather than making a pick that might help him with independents and moderates. and the people that they really need, if they're going to win in battleground states. >> i think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of paul ryan. you know, he does talk about the fiscal crisis that we're facing which he should, because he's one of the few courageous politicians on this topic. he talks about tax reform. he talks about monetary policy. his whole message is a growth-oriented economic message. and to disagree with my colleague, the comparison here is not sarah palin. it's really to jack kemp. you know-- >> his former mentor. >> wait, wait. both paul ryan and i, by the way, worked for jack kemp at the same time in the 1990s. he was profoundly influenced by that example. i think he can take that message, which he's really good at, to the hispanic community,

to working class voters, to a lot of other people. it's a hope-oriented, opportunity message nepal brings. and they need to get him out there on that message. he's going to be a real advantage on those set of issues. >> cordes: roger, one thing david axelrod said to me was this pick means romney will have a more peaceful convention but a more difficult general election. is that how you see it? >> oh, sure. i mean, he's going to get a bounce from this vice presidential pick. candidates always do. he's going to get a bounce from his convention. these bounces disappear fast it. i agree with ruth. everybody says how bold a choice this was. bold is the new risky. this is an enormously risky choice for any number of reasons. one, it makes the election not a rove dumb on barack obama, but a referendum on the ryan budget plan. and that's a plan that is going to be characterized by the

democrats as a plan to protect the deserving wealthy at the cost of the poor, and of the middle class. another risk is that mitt romney is telling people, you know, we really need to focus on my vice president, on my number two. the risk is that most americans don't care about the number two. they care about the president. and even if romney says, look, i don't believe in the whole ryan budget plan. the fact is, if romney and ryan are elected, the ryan budget plan is a heartbeat away from the presidency. i think this was all based on the fact that romney was losing his base. this is you have to hold on to the base, that's it. forget about hispanics. forget about seniors, even though that's the only cohort that obama lost last time. and forget about independents.

hang on to the base. scare the middle class into thinking obama is going to take your wealth away and give it to the poor. have a he believe get-out-the-vote campaign and hope voter i.d. laws-- which democrats call voter suppression laws-- will keep the democratic vote down. >down. >> cordes: bob shrum i want to bring you into this. wouldn't it be wrong for democratdemocrats to underestiml ryan? he's a pretty tough debater, and a match-up, head to head between him and vice president biden would be pretty interesting to watch. >> yeah, i think that's right. first, nancy, by the way, i should say i've joined david up from at "newsweek" and the "daily beast." i just need to correct that. secondly, i think he will be effective in a debate, and i think people will watch with fascination to see how he does against vice president biden. but the big story here for me is every time we go through one of these vice presidential selection, we come up with a new

rule. i mean, after sarah palin, the new rule is you gotta make sure your selection, the person you're picking, knows what they're talking about on foreign policy. i think the rule we're going to come up with after this one is never pick a man with a plan. ( laughter ) because in guy-- this guy is going to become front and center in this campaign. it's almost going to be the ryan-romney ticket instead of the other way around. all of those issues that were talked about earlier in the show-- what's happening to medicare, the privatization of social security-- by the way, all of which, in terms of the ryan plan, romney endorsed in the primaries to pay for a tax cut that would let him pay 1% in income taxes -- those are going to be central to this campaign. sackedlysecondly, he does help e base. but he doesn't help with any of the places romney has profound weaknesses. specifically with the hispanics -- romney is 44% behind with hispanic. paul ryan voted against the

dream act and uses terms like "anchor babies." in terms of women, he sponsored the personhood bill in the congress that would outlaw forms of birth control. and seniors, you know, 58% of seniors voted republican in 2010. that was the key to the midterm republican victory. you look at the new polls, for example, by the a.a.r.p. in florida, and it's basically a tie. all those seniors are now going to be pushed toward obama. i think paul ryan is a perfect trifecta in terms of alienating some critical constituencies. >> cordes: you know, ruth, one thing i'veinoid paunoticed aboul ryan, is this guy is a happy warrior. he can be getting it from all sides. he was even getting a lot of heat from his own republican leadership over his plan because it was so tough and putting him in a difficult position. but he does not care. he plows forward. that's very compelling when you're up on a stage and candlelight vigil what some people think would be political

suicide, bad news about entitlements, but he believes in it wholeheartedly and you can really see that. >> that's absolutely true. and i think the best advocate for the ryan plan is paul ryan. i've spent also a lot of time talking to him, talking to him and senator widen about the mode care plan. i've written critical things about it and been willing to engage and explain to me in a really nice way why i'm wrong. if you're going to run on the ryan plan, you might as well run with paul ryan. i just don't necessarily think, as some other folks have said, that that's where you want to be wanting to run. >> i disagree with bob shrum. i think they need a plan that addresses the primary problems and not the secondary and future problem. the american economy is not adding jobs slowly in 2012 because of the problems of medicare in 2022. it is adding jobs slowly now because of the burden of debt on households. it is adding jobs slowly because of the housing crisis, and this is barack obama's biggest

failure as president. he has not addressed housing. the policies are horrible failures. the administration itself acknowledges that. that is the point to hit. why are there no jobs? it is because of household debt. it is not because of medicare. >> it is a simple misunderstanding of ryan himself. i don't think it's risky to pick for-- for romney to pick the single best economic spokesman of the republican party in an economy that's about the election. and ryan does not just speak to medicare. in fact, he has a much broader economic message. i think this is a very insular attitude here. first of all, even-- >> no question. >> even on the issues that relate to the budget, there's-- you know, the democrats will focus on the microissues, the effect of this cut on this group. ryan and romney will focus on the macro issue, which is we're headed towards greece. that is a real issue.

>> we're yeur not heading towards greece. >> we are. >> we're not heading towards greece. that's completely ridiculous. the fact of the matter is, newt gingrich when he says unemployment in greece is at 54% for young people because they're spending too much. it's 54% for young people because of austerity. mikeole, you might not want to talk about the micro point, but in the ryan budget, which doesn't balance the budget until 2040, mitt romney would pay an effective tax rate of 1%, while seniors would pay $6,000 more for medicare. yeah, by the way, they could keep med character but the cost of medicare would go up and they would have to make up the difference. maybe what i should have said was never pick a man with this kind of plan. this kind of plan is going to be poison politically in this election. >> cordes: roger, do you agree with that? >> just in case people are in a state of despair, let me make one prediction. this campaign will not be about monkeyness.

it will not be about micro issues. monkeyneswonkeyness will not plh the american people. i didn't know jack kemp as well as michael. he was a wonderful guy when he talked about football, and then he started talking about taking america to the gold standard. and you would see people in the audience saying, "what the heck is he talking about?" this campaign will be about the economy, but it will be about which team do i really trust? which team do i really think understands a person like me? which team cares about a person like me? and, yes, i'll say it-- it will be about likeability, because no matter what else you say, go back through history, the more likable candidate almost always wins. and this is why mitt romney had

to take a risk. he wasn't that likable. >> cordes: so, john, let me just bring you in before we have to go to break, which team ends up being more likable? now we know the field is set. >> reporter: well, it depends. if this becomes a committee mark-up, in which every tiny detail of paul ryan's belief is discussed, that's a big problem for the relationships people have mentioned. also, because ryan is the better spokesman than the guy at the top of the ticket, and even if ryan is a happy warrior, that doesn't really matter unless mitt romney can be the happy warrior on those specifics. the romney campaign is betting in large part this election will be a referendum, but that there's a second piece, a smaller piece, but a second piece, which is that people have to like the ticket, and paul ryan helps with that, and, also, they have to have some kind of plan. the romney campaign has to hope that people just like the idea of a plan more than digging into every tiny little detail of it. and so that's how it will come to in the end. >> cordes: i'm sure the obama campaign is not going to let people forget about the tiny

details familiar when we come back i want to talk about what this means for the obama administration. do they now have to get more specific? we'll be right back in one minute.

>> cordes: bob slum, i want to start with you, which battle ground states does paul ryan help mitt romney with the most? for example, can he help him with his own home state, wisconsin. i think he does help in wisconsin. i still think there's a good chance the president will carry it, but he has good play there. people, obviously, know him there, and i think there will be home state pride. i think he actually does hurt in florida. i think he does hurt in pen pep. i think conceivably he does hurt in ohio. look, at the end of the day, you can't have it both ways. you can't say, "we want to have a debate about big, substantive

issues-- and by the way we don't want to discuss the details" because the details are where you get to those big, substantive issues. i think the obama administration, after romney put ryan on the ticket, is going to put ryan on television for tens of themselves of rating points and we're going to hear about a whole set of these provisions that he's proposed, whether or not it's in terms of the economy, in terms of immigration, or in terms of women's health. i think this is not a pick that's guaranteed to do very well in the-- in these battleground states. i agree with roger-- this was a base pick. there was a lot of dissatisfaction with romney. the grumbling was beginning in the republican party. usually the democrats are the ones on the sidelines wringing their hans. he united the peter, much like mccain did with the palin pick but we have to see what the long-term impact is. >> cordes: you know, michael, bob mentioned women's health. we had a series of polls here at cbs looking at battle ground

states and mitt romney is trail, often by double digits, for women. what does this pick mean for those numbers when you look at paul ryan's record on issues like aabortion, where he has came out in favor of antiabortion rights. can they make up any round with women? >> he's a strong catholic. he brings a certain perspective to this issue. i don't think that's necessaryee a drawback. he's won in a pretty evenly divided district between democrats and republicans the way kemp did in buffalo, by having a winning personality, by leading with conviction, not calculation. i think some of that will carry here. i mean, he is-- you know, he's a very likable conviction politician. the question is whether you think that's toxic in american politics. in fact, i don't think it is toxic. >> i don't think that's toxic in american politics, and i think any pick for a vice presidential candidate was going to have the same view on abortion as the

majority of the republican party. and i think that is what it is. i have to disagree with the notion that romney needed to make a base pick. i don't think so. i think the base is so motivated to get rid of barack obama, and obamacare and everything ols, that they were going to turn out, and they might be holding their noses but they were going to go for romney. and that's where i think maybe romney needed to shake things up with the vice presidential candidate, but i'm not sure this way. if the bain capital attacks, if the paying little in taxes attack were taking a toll, why do you pick a guy whose tax plan is actually nice tore rich people than mitt romney is? i mean his original tax plan had zero taxes on investment income, capital gains and dividended. >> cordes: david, isn't that going to be a huge messaging problem? we're in a weak economy, and paul ryan wants to slash taxes for the wealthy, even more than mitt romney? >> it wouldn't be a problem if there were a convincing and

credible explanation about how lowering these taxes would translate into economic growth and jobs. that's its issue. economic growth and jobs. >> cordes: and we don't have a lot of proof that that's happened. >> what we've got sheer a fiscal message. this is going to be an election about the government's finances. in a year, when people want the election to be about their finances. it's could landlord to the tragedy of this. the president does not deserve reelection on his economic record. the republicans are cooperating with the president in changing the subject. they are talking about what the republicans want, which is the future of the-- a very important question-question on which the republicans is right. this is not the time. the time is to talk about the economic emergency, household debt, and job creation. that's where republicans needed to be. >> cordes: roger, i have 20 seconds. i'm going to give you the last word. >> we've been in the economic downturn since the day barack obama has been elected. was elected. and he's won in all the polls so far.

the question is, if it's really about the economic turmoil in america, why i isn't mitt romney doing better? and i doubt paul ryan is going to give him any one of the three states he needs, which is florida, ohio, and virginia. >> cordes: great, thank you so much to our entire panel. we'll be right back. ,,,,,,,,,,

know more about paul ryan in the comingidate but when bob interviewed him back in may when it was beginning to look like mitt romney would get the republican nomination. ryan gave us a little insight into how he thought romney should respond to democratic attacks. that's our "face the nation" flash back. >> schieffer: if mitt romney gets the nomination, now he's out there, doesn't he become the face of what president obama is trying to say? he said look, this guy made $20 million last year and paying less than 15% of that in taxes. you're having to pay more taxes than he is, and that's unfair, and we ought to do something about it. >> i think-- i think that's clearly going to be the

strategy, if that's the nominee we have. but what is important for mitt romney to do is take the moral high ground on these issues. take on the beauty of our free enterprise system and defend it fully, defend it confidently, and go to the american people not with an envy and division and resentment strategy, which is really what the president is doing, and go with a unity strategy, one that appeals to people based our founding principles and how we're going to get this country together and take on the challenges the president has ducked, which as a result has it so much worse. >> cordes: paul ryan's take on what the republican strategy should be before he knew he would be mitt romney's running mate. today's "face the nation" flashback. we'll be right back. inspires the things you choose to do.

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>> >> cordes: be sure to tune in tonight for "60 minutes" for the first joint interview with mitt romney and paul ryan conducted by our own bob schieffer. for now, i'm nancy cordes. thanks for watching. have a great day. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ,,,, ,,,,