>> schieffer: today on "face the nation" could mitt romney really lose michigan, the state where his dad was governor? we'll talk to one of his strongest supporters, new jersey governor chris christie. >> this guy says he's a loud mouth from new jersey, but don't you believe it. he's a lot smarter than that. >> we know a president when we see one. and he is right here. >> schieffer: the man who has emerged as romney's chief rival rick santorum might take issue with that. he says romney will do and say whatever it takes to get elected. >> what you see today may be something different than what you get tomorrow. >> schieffer: as the campaign got even stranger, santorum accused president obama of, well, here's what he said. >> president obama once said

he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. >> schieffer: the president managed to weather that criticism and stay on key. ♪ come on, baby, don't you want to go ♪ >> schieffer: it was that kind of week. we'll talk about all of it with governor christie and democratic governor martin o'malley because this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: good morning again. new jersey governor chris christie is right here in the studio with us this morning. governor, it's always good to have you because you have this unusual habit of answering questions. >> we'll keep it going, bob. >> schieffer: let's talk politics this morning. your man, mitt romney, is having a lot of trouble even out in michigan it seems which a lot of us find hard to

believe. i mean, it would seem to me he would be a shoe-in out there. yet, it just doesn't seem to be working. rick santorum was neck and neck with him. what's he doing wrong? >> well, you know, i don't think anybody is a shoe-in this year, bob. it's a very volatile electorate. part of this primary is that republicans are really focused on wanting to defeat president obama. i think our primary voters are shopping. they want to make sure they pick the very best person to give the president the very best race. they're not settled on it yet. it's not something that governor romney isn't doing. i think over the pace of time as they get to know him better, they're going to come to governor romney. >> schieffer: rick santorum suggested yesterday that mitt romney is not really a person of conviction. >> oh, i'm running for the senate against ted kennedy. i'll be a liberal. i'm running for governor of massachusetts so i'll be a moderate. now, oh, i'm going to run for republican nomination for president. i'll be a conservative today.

what's he going to be tomorrow? >> schieffer: that's the question, governor? i mean,. >> i think he is what rick santorum called him in 2008 which was the most conservative candidate when rick santorum endorsed him in 2008. what you saw in that clip is naked opportunism, bob. now that he's running against him he doesn't know what mitt romney is. when he was endorsing him in 2008 he called him a real conservative. i'll go with the less effective rick santorum evaluation in 2008. mitt romney is a real conservative. >> schieffer: but it does seem that governor romney is having real trouble connecting with common folk. he seems to say things that might be funny at the country club but they sort of fall flat outside the country club. like friday he was talking about how much he liked cars. he managed to say this. >> i like the fact that most of the cars i see are detroit made automobiles. i drive a mustang and a chevy

pick-up truck. ann drives a couple of cadillacs actually. i used to have a dodge truck. i used to have all three covered. >> schieffer: most people don't have four or five cars, governor. why would he say that? >> the cat is out of the bag, bob, on the fact that governor romney likes cars. many people who have made a lot of money over time do. i think this is something to be candid folks are looking for him to make trip-ups. he's telling the truth about the cars he has. what if he didn't answer the question about how many cars he had or didn't talk about, then people would be saying he's hiding it. governor romney has been successful. that's what we want in the president of the united states. do we want somebody who has been a failure at everything they've done is that going to recommend him for the white house? he's been a great success in business, a great success as executive and governor of massachusetts. that's the kind of guy we want in the white house. >> schieffer: he also said at one point he was not worried about the very poor. clearly you're a politician that does seem to worry about that. you have a new state budget

out here. i includes more money for the poor. it includes more for hospitals to take care of the poor. it includes more for education. do you think mitt romney cares about the very poor. >> i think he does. you know the whole answer, bob, was that he wasn't as concerned about the poor because there's a safety net. if it had holes he would repair it. governor romney cares about all the american people. listen, when you're out there and the camera is following you 24/7 sometimes you're going to misspeak. he did. i think he admitted that. he apologized for it. you have to move on. i think in this 24/7 era we live in. believe me, i've done it. everybody in public life who speaks honestly is going to do it. if we want blow-dried answers and focus-group tested answers, we won't know who the man is. i think we're getting to know mitt romney. >> schieffer: i want to shift to rick santorum who is also another person in the race. he made the strangest ak sas yesterday. he said president obama is a snob.

because he wants everyone to get a college education. he said earlier this week he wanted to get the states out of education. obviously you don't agree with that part. but what is that all about? >> well, i don't know. what i see is the way i put it all the time, bob, is we need to have an education system in new jersey and all over the country that makes all of our kids, either college or career ready. it should be their choice. every kid doesn't want to go to college. but i think we should aspire to let every child reach his maximum or her maximum potential. if senator santorum is against that, then i don't think that makes any sense. i don't think the president is a snob for saying that. i think that's probably over the line. >> schieffer: do you think rick santorum and, well, the candidates in general, are pushing your party too far to the right to make the nomination worth anything when you get to november? >> rick santorum will not be the nominee. in the end governor romney who has real conservative values but has real appeal to independents across the country is going to be the

nominee. he's going to be talking about the things that he should be talking about: jobs and the economy. robust economic recovery. not the weak one that we're having now. get more people back to work. and reinvigorating our entrepreneurial spirit not a government topdown solution. he'll be talking about those things. it always looks bad. remember hillary clinton and barack obama? i mean they said women would never vote for barack obama after the way he treated hillary clinton in that race. plenty of women voted for barack obama in 2008. when we get through the rye matter it will be okay. >> schieffer: what i'm wondering about is his concentration on social issues. al simpson who used to be a senator from wyoming has a way of pointing a point on things. >> sure does. i like him. >> schieffer: here's what he said the other day about if you go too far on these social issues. >> i am convinced that if you get into these social issues and just stay in there about abortion and homosexuality and the mental health they bring up, if we're going to do that-- and here's a party that believes in government out of

your life, the precious right of privacy, and the right to be left alone. how then can they be the hypocrisy of fiddling around in these social issues? we won't have a prayer. >> schieffer: do you agree with that? >> i don't. because i don't think there's been an enormous emphasis on it. we've gone through a couple of weeks where senator santorum has made some comments. remember it's all senator santorum. it has fascinated the media in part because he's been doing better lately. everybody is covering him very intensely. listen to what mitt romney has been talking about. he's been talking about a 20% tax cut, making the tax code fairer, simpler for people so you don't have to hire an accountant to file your returns. those are the things he's been talking about. i don't agree with the characterization of the party as a whole. this is senator santorum who is discussing these. i care about some of these social issues. so do a lot of these viewers. what people care about more is getting a job. being able to pay their mortgage and put food on the

table. those are the things they care the most about. those are the issues mitt romney is hitting head on right now. >> schieffer: i wonder how you get the focus back to that if you do because we've spent the last couple of weeks here talking about running against birth control. for goodness sake. i admit, i mean, i believe the president made a serious political mistake when he tried to say to the catholic church, you have to buy birth control pills for the folks that work in your hospitals and your schools and so forth. but he backed away from that. and yet the republicans keep pushing. they say that's not enough. you've got to be totally against birth control the way some of... i mean.... >> i don't think, you know, most republicans have said that. i certainly was asked about this. >> schieffer: that's certainly what santorum is saying. >> but you're proving my point. rick santorum is talking about these things. he's trying to appeal to a certain sector of our electorate. a lot of these social issues

are important to me but i also know that what's most important to the people of the republican party and of america right now, bob, is to talk about jobs. so you say how are we going to get back to that? the passage of time. the 24/7 news cycle is you guys get bored and move on to something else. governor romney has not taken his eye off the ball. he's been talking about tax cuts, simplifying the code, cutting the spending and getting our country back on the right track to have an entrepreneurial economic explosion in this country. >> schieffer: how do you go after barack obama though right now? i mean, stock market is up. it looks like the unemployment is going down. david axelrod in his campaign said the other day osama bin laden is dead. general motors is alive. it's going to be a tough job for you. is it not? >> listen. i've always said that the race against president obama, i said this a year ago, that anybody who took barack obama lightly did so at their own peril. i think he will be a very formidable candidate but he also has real weaknesses, bob.

he said unemployment would never go over 8% if we passed his stimulus plan. we went up over 10%. a lot of people are still suffering. foreclosures are high. people don't feel as if they've gotten the hope and change that the president promised. so part of this is going to be, yes, progress is being made. sure. we see it in our state. but on the other hand, has enough progress been made? and the people who are really hurting, are they going to feel like they want to stay in this direction or do they want to change direction? that's what the election is going to be about. that's why we have these elections. let's have the arguments. let's have the fight. i think mitt romney will bring that fight to the president. the president is going to have to defend his record. i'm not going to be one of these guys who is going to say nothing good happens ever. you have no credibility if you say that. >> schieffer: let me just ask you this. it's hypothetical to be sure. but if mitt romney does lose michigan, i think you're going to hear a lot of voices in your party saying, maybe we ought to rethink this whole thing. maybe some other people ought to think about getting in.

you said before, no way, no how. but if that should happen, is there anyway you would ever consider getting back in this race? >> no. i'm with governor romney. one of the things people know about me is that when i make up my mind it pretty much stays made. is there a possibility if governor romney were to lose michigan for a contested election, a contested convention? sure. that's a possibility. i don't think it's a likelihood. i think he's going to win michigan. after that i think he'll continue to establish momentum but this is going to go up and down, bob. we've seen this race. herman cain was a frontrunner. michele bachmann was a frontrunner. they're out of the race now. rick perry was a frontrunner. i think we have to be patient as republicans and take a deep breath and let this process work its way out. but i think governor romney will be the nominee at the end. >> schieffer: let me make sure i heard what you said. you said, sure, there is a possibility that if the governor romney loses michigan, we might go all the way to the convention.

and have a contested convention. were you saying in there, if that should happen, you might rethink getting in? >> no, i didn't say that at all. i just said that i'm not going to deny that that possibility exists that we could have a contested coffin convenience. but i think still it's unlikely. very unlikely. i think governor romney when he gets through the last week of august will have a majority of the delegates and will be the nominee. then we'll get to focus in the last 67 days of the race on the president of the united states and his record. the promises from '08. and the failure to meet those promises in the four years that he's had as president. that's what we're going to be focusing on then. a lot of this other stuff you've been asking me perfectly appropriate questions but that will be water under the bridge by the time we get to august. >> schieffer: what about vice president? does that interest you? >> not really. what i'll say though to you is that if governor romney were to come and talk to me about it, i would listen because i love my party enough and i love my country enough to listen. but i love being governor of new jersey. if you're a betting man, bob,

and i know you are, if you're betting, bet me on me being the governor of new jersey into next year. >> schieffer: let me ask you about something you've proposed in your state, a 10% across the board tax hike. can new jersey really afford that right now? a tax cut. >> a tax cut. yeah, we could afford it now because we've made a lot of very hard decisions the last two years. i've been on your show before, we've talked about the significant cuts. we cut real spending not projected growth but real spending two years in a row. in my first two budgets. and what we have seen is economic growth return to new jersey. we've continued to hold the line on spending. so this is a state, bob, that had 115 tax increases in eight years before i became governor. people deserve to get some of their money back. we're doing it responsibly. 10% phased in over three years so we don't blow a hole in budget. we have a way to adjust. imagine new jersey, bob, people getting their taxes lowered every year for three years? people will become disoriented by that. given the history. >> schieffer: governor, i want to thank you for being with us this morning. i've said at the beginning you

always answer the questions. and you do. i wonder if i could ask a favor of you. we've been trying for a long time to get mitt romney to come sit down at this table. you're obviously a friend and an advisor. you make a good case for him. i'd like to hear him make a case. would you put in a word for us and say, you know, they'd love to see you over there at face the nation? if you'd accept their invitation. >> you bet i will. when i talk to him next time i'll tell him it's a good friendly place to come to answer questions. >> schieffer: thank you very much, governor. thank you very much. >> thank you, bob. >> schieffer: we'll be back in a minute to talk to martin o'malley, the democratic governor of maryland. >> the next president of the united states of america, governor mitt romney.

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governor, thank you for coming. >> thank you, bob. >> schieffer: you heard chris christie. he makes a good case for mitt romney. what is your take as a democrat as you're watching this race unfold. >> the most important issue in this race is whether or not our economy is getting better. i think that's a difficult fact that the republican presidential candidates are wrestling with right now. i mean look at what has happened under president obama's leadership. 23 months in a row, a positive job growth. more jobs created in the private sector last year than in all eight years of george w. bush. foreclosures have been driven down to their lowest level in four years, and we see an auto industry because of the president's courageous decisions that is now turning around, that is highing... hiring people with manufacturing in america actually adding jobs for the first time since in '90s. clearly we have a lot of work to do but under president obama's leadership our economy is starting to create jobs again. we need to do more of that. >> schieffer: but has also happened under president obama's leadership is the

price of gas seems to be going through the roof. it's now $5 a gallon out in california. newt gingrich says he has a plan to bring it down to $2.50 a gallon. >> (laughing). >> schieffer: what is the president going to do about the price of gas. >> newt gingrich also has a plan to create moon colonies and lunar outposts within two years. and then what they're doing right now, bob, i believe, is that for most of this presidential campaign, when they weren't taking hard right turns into, you know, extremist social issues, they were trying to say that the economy is getting worse. when in fact it's getting better. so now that it is getting better, they want to switch it and say, look at gas prices. the president's responsible for that. wire part of a global economy. the fact of the matter is domestic oil production has been increasing every year under president obama. our reliance on foreign oil is down to the lowest level that it's been in 16 years.

and, yes, we do need to find ways to be more energy efficient, more energy independent, and with some help from republican obstructionists in congress we could actually make more progress more quickly. >> schieffer: what do you make of rick santorum's remarks this week that the president is a snob because he wants everyone to go to college? he said this morning there are a lot of people who are plumbers and have other jobs that are also good americans. i mean, i don't quite get what that was about. what's your take on that? >> there's much that rick santorum says that i don't really get. i think what all of us can acknowledge though is that in order for our country to be successful economically and for our children to actually have better opportunities than we've had, we need to educate our children at higher and better levels. so that means more kids being able to compete in terms of science and math but also we need to do a better job in

terms of career and technical education. the bottom line is that the more highly skilled we make our work force in every way the better they will be able to earn salaries and provide for their families. i think everybody knows that that's what the president is talking about when he encourages all of the states to join in a race to the top. we need to give our children a world class education. >> schieffer: even some democrats-- and i talked about this with governor christie-- believes that the president from a practical standpoint made a mistake when he came out with a plan that was interpreted to say that catholic church had to buy birth control pills for people who worked in catholic hospitals and so on. he did back away from that. but is that going to be an issue, this whole idea of birth control? is that going to be an issue in this campaign? >> golly, i hope not. i would have thought that we were past that. governor jerry browne of california, who by the way recently saw his state's bond

rating upgraded, unlike governor christie's bond rating which was downgraded, he said the other night, governor brown, that i thought we were past this contraception argument. in the republican party, there are some that would like to do all sorts of things that are outside of the mainstream of what most of us believe is the fabric of a society of people of many different faiths. whatever missteps there might have been in that issue as it rolled out the bottom line is that the president does believe that contraception coverage for women should be a part of basic health care coverage. and now there are exemptions there for religious affiliated institutions. i think the president came out looking like the reasonable man that he is on this. >> schieffer: do you think it's good for the president if republicans try to concentrate on social issues? >> i think it's good for the president. i think it's bad for the country. newer, i think what we really need is where that more moderate republican party to come back, to join with the

president in doing the things that republicans in the past used to believe made our economy go. investing in research and development, investing in education, investing in infrastructure. these are the things that have always made us a great country. for the election, i suppose it's best for the president if they take their hard right turn sort of war on unions, war on women, all these cultural issues. for our country it would be nice to see that party of lincoln emerge once again instead of this extreme right- control that they submit themselves to in their own primaries. >> schieffer: governor o'malley, thank you so much for being with us. see you down the trail. >> thanks, bob. >> schieffer: back in a moment with some final thoughts. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai,

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>> schieffer: finally today, so what if mitt romney loses michigan, a place where he grew up, the place where his dad was not just governor but a popular governor who was thrust into politics after saving american motors, the auto company that he once headed? well, you can take this part to the bank. romney's people, if he loses, will play it down. his opponents will play it up. but what will really matter is what we'll be hearing from other republicans. my prediction is you'll hear a chorus of voices calling on people like jeb bush, indiana governor mitch daniels and the man we heard from earlier, chris christie, to rethink their decisions not to run. they'll be urged to get in to the race. would they? could they? i don't know about would they? but could they?

and have a chance to win? the answer is yes. it is a long shot but they could. there are 22 contests where the filing deadlines to get on the ballot in states are still open. those states don't provide enough delegates for a late starter to get the nomination. but a late comer who got a big part of the delegates could probably stop any of the current candidates from wrapping up the nomination before the republican convention. now this is a guess. clearly labeled. but if republicans get to their convention with no nominee, i predict they'll pick someone other than those in the current field. why? because if we've learned anything from this race, it is is that republicans have a red hot burning fervor to beat barack obama. but it is a fervor they have not yet matched for any of their current candidates. who knows? we may be just getting started with all of this. back in a moment.

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that's going to have to be done by a certain date. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today. it's what's right here is what is most important to me. it's beautiful. ♪ ♪ >> schieffer: and we'll see you next week right here on f case captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ♪

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