>> schieffer: today on face the nation, the whacky week in republican politics. >> there are factions that are trying to destroy me personally as well as this campaign. >> schieffer: while herman cain spends the week on national television denying allegations of sexual harassment, the internet and late night comics were all abuzz about a bizarre-o speech that rick perry made in new hampshire. >> this is is such a cool site. i mean, come on. live free or die. you know, you've got to love that, right? >> schieffer: what is going on? who has been helped? who was hurt? we'll talk about it. rick perry campaign supporter ken blackwell, former bachmann campaign manager ed rawlins, the former head of the republican party ed gillespie and activist and strategist liz cheney.

we'll round it out with cbs news political analyst john dickerson. and then we'll meet the young women behind another video that has gone viral, three of jon huntsman's daughters, abby, mary ann and libby. it's all hi... it's all ahead on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs >> schieffer: we have republicans all across the country prepared to speak this morning. we are ready to poll the delegation. the first thing we're going to talk about is this week that herman cain had here in washington. charges of sexual harassment were raised against him. and at one point it was just every stop he would either add or change the story and talk about what had happened. i want to just play you just a brief clip of his day here or his week in washington.

>> i have never sexually harassed anyone. it is totally baseless and totally false. i do remember the formal allegation she made in terms of sexual harassment. as far as a settlement, i am unaware of any sort of settlement. i was aware that an agreement was reached. i got out in front and was direct in addressing this issue. >> schieffer: ed gillespie you were the head of the republican party at one point. you've been a strategist in many campaigns over the years. the cain people keep saying end of story. is it the end of the story? >> well, i don't know if it's the end of the story. obviously any time you're talking about sexual harassment instead of your tax reform plan you're not on the message you want to be on. i do think that a lot of republican voters think that, you know, when there's an anonymous, you know, allegation that there's a sense amongst many republicans

that there's, you know, that's not exactly fair. two, i think the conservatives believe that liberals, you know, have kind of a special disdain for black conservatives.ñi i think that they feel that there's an unfairness that is at play here. and so i think that actually, you know, this is not as damaging to herman cain. the third thing i would say is that, you know, he is an unconventional candidate but it's an unconventional year. his response has been unconventional. but i think one of the things you're seeing at least you're not seeing yet is as much damage as you would expect in other years or with other campaigns. >> schieffer: well, you're right on that. because the only poll we have since all this began was in the "washington post". it showed that his support had not lessened at all. but as for liberals being behind it, he was saying at one point this week it was not liberals but the perry campaign that had leaked this information. ed rawlins, what do you think

he has to do now? has he been hurt by all of this even though the polls show he's generally holding the support he has? >> first of all sometimes it takes two or three weeks for polls or for the incidents to really show up in polls. in this segment of the electorate that he has this 25% there's been seven people have been frontrunners in this campaign since the beginning. most of them have had that same 25-30% that he's had, everybody from trump to bachmann to perry to and now to kane. i think that vote will move back and forth a little bit until it's solidified. he's not out of this yet. he can't basically say i'm not going to answer any more questions on this. as facts come forward even though it's an unconventional campaign with an unconventional candidate republicans want to win. we want a candidate who can go up against obama and beat him. we think we have an excellent opportunity for that. this is the year to go. there's less than 60 days to go before the iowa caucuses so a week is a lifetime in politics. a month is even more so and a year is an eternity.

i think you're going to see a lot of things happening. i think herman is not basically answerd the questions correctly or has seen the last of this. >> schieffer: to that point, that now seems to be the new strategy. last night he came down pretty hard on that. listen to what he said last night when somebody tried to ask.... >> the attorney for one of the women who filed a sexual harassment complaint sdts. >> don't even go there. >> can i ask my question? >> no, because.... >> may i ask a question? >> where is my chief of staff? >> right here. >> please send them the journalistic code of ethics. all right? >> schieffer: well, ed, what about that? we haven't gotten that journalistic code of ethics. >> first of all, it's a tough game. he reminds me a lot of ten years ago i was ross perot's campaign manager for a brief period of time. perot blamed everything on the media as opposed to himself. he was an unconventional candidate and pretty much

self-destructed in the course of his candidacy. the media is a very important part of this process. it's the eyes of the american public. you may not always like what they do or what you do. at the end of the day you have to deal with it. otherwise you lock yourself in a closet and do nothing but commercials on television. that's not a successful strategy. >> schieffer: ken blackwell you're a perryman and have been for a long timing. you go way back with him. at one point he blamed it all on rick perry said it had been leaked by the perry campaign, named names and all of that. i think then his campaign manager backed away from that a little bit. first i'll give you a chance to say it was not rick perry if that's what you believe. >> it wasn't rick perry. i think the cain campaign has started to walk back from that accusation. it was a shame that he started to point fingers at a time when he said, you know, folks should not point fingers without facts. it was a contradiction. and so i think what herman has to do is to get everything out in the open. this is still an open and a

live case. the n.r.a. has basically said that the women who filed the complaints are free to speak on this issue. if they choose not to speak until cain is successful in winning some primaries, it had hurt him then. so he has a real interest in getting it out, getting it out as soon as he can and tell the truth. as long as he tells the truth, gets it out and has a consistent story, i think he can get through this. this won't be the issue. the issue takes away... this issue takes away from us focusing on obama's inability to create jobs and high unemployment, and the lack of economic growth that will put us back on the path to prosperity. >> schieffer: liz cheney you haven't endorsed anybody in this campaign. do you think that herman cain can actually survive this. >> i do. i think what we've heard now

are a lot of accusations. not a lot of facts. having been through campaigns at a very high level, i can tell you that facts are often one of the first casualties. and i think that, you know, ken is exactly right. the intensity of the focus here is very interesting to me. the intensity of the focus we've seen on the debate in particular on the republican debates this time around, and the impact that those debate performances have had tells you that what the american voters really care about is the substance. i think frankly people are very, very scared. they're looking for an alternative to president obama. they see a failing economy and a president whose policies have made this much worse. and frankly they are looking for somebody who is going to be able to talk about how we're going to create jobs, how we're going to get the economy growing again. you know, there's a lot of kind of interest in, you know, other topics going on right now particularly in the mainstream media. but at the end of the day i think that it's pretty

frustrating.... >> schieffer: if you were herman cain's campaign manager, what would you tell him to do? would you say you need to let this all out as ken said because it may come back and haunt you later on? or would you advise him just go right on? >> well, i think it looks to me from the outside like he's done a good part here towards getting facts out. there were legal ramifications about speaking to this issue. i understand now that the accusers have said at least one of them has said she doesn't plan to come out and speak publicly. it's a really fine line. at some point you've got to say, look, here's the deal. here are the facts. i think he's been trying to do that. but then you've got to move on. when you're in the middle of a feeding frenzy like this it's often difficult to move on. i think you have to have the confidence to know at the end of the day, you know, so long as we don't see more damaging facts come out, this is not the issue that's going to decide the election. who can create jobs and grow the economy is what will decide. both the republican primary

and also ultimately the general election. >> schieffer: john dickerson you've been on the campaign trail been out in iowa. what is the reaction out there among people? >> well, mr. cain benefits from something ed gillespie mentioned which is that in the country the people i've been talking to, they look at the mainstream media and fact that the mainstream media is talking about this as a sign that cain is being persecuted, that he's being attacked because he's a black republican. they have rallied around herman cain. anybody who chooses to keep these charges alive whether it's the press or an opponent is going to pay a penalty in the short term.ñi but what i also hear is people then talking about, well, but has he been thoroughly vetted as a candidate? michele bachmann raised this. it's the notion that you can't have a nominee who goes into the general election who might have questions. while it would be harmful to cain to talk about this anymore because drip drip drip just hurts him. if there's a big question mark that allowspp1=a1 say that we just don't know.

it's not just about this issue but it's also his positions on foreign policy, on abortion, some other hurdles he's had in his campaign and create a big balloon much doubt that hangs over him. that would be a problem. >> schieffer: i want to talk about rick perry who came when he announced he shot to the top of the polls and had a couple of stumbles in the debates. and he went right back down. whale all of this was going on on national television and out there on the internet, the story that was getting so much play was this rather-- and i'll use the term-- bizarre video of rick perry making a speech up in new hampshire. just listen to this. ) take on this. >> today is awesome. gold is good. if you have any in the backyard, if they print any more money over in washington, gold is going to be good. i come from a state, you know, where they had little while

place called the alamo. they declared victory or death. we're kind into those slogans tonight. victory or die. victory or death. you know, this is awesome. why not? that little plan that i just shared with you doesn't force the granite state to put in your tax footprint. you know what i mean. like 90%. >> schieffer: so, ken, you are the rick perryman here today. i must say i was at a forum the other day with a republican consultant and a democratic consultant. the republican charlie black kind of a republican establishment man put the best face on it. he said that it was his understanding that rick perry had back problems and maybe this was something to do with the medication he was taking. the democrat just came right

out and said i think he was drunk. i'm just telling you this is what other people said. that's what is going on out in the political universe right now. people are talking about this. what do you think this was all about? >> i think it's aboutçó a heavily edited you-tube presentation of a 25-minute speech. what they show on you-tube is about three to seven minutes depending on what version you get. the crowd responded fabulously to his presentation because in that 25 minutes he talked about how to get america growing again. he talked about his texas record in terms of protecting the border. he talked about what he believed was american exceptionalism and what folks did on you-tube was condense, you know, it down to a very small version. look, the guy has been under tremendous pressure. he's been told you're uptight.

you're too serious. loosen up. he does it or a over a span of a speech. somebody cuts it down and makes it look like that was the substance of his speech which is totally false. i think he needs to keep on going straightforward, be as loose as he wants to be but keep the focus on getting the economy growing again. >> schieffer: you know, ed rawlins we all remember back out in iowa when herman dean made that victory speech, what people call the scream now. i think a lot of people think that's what done him in. in that race out there. what do you make of it? >> howard dean is a good friend of mine. basically that was sort of the end of his candidacy. i don't think this is the end of the perry candidacy. but i think it's an image that will stay there a long time. nobody has made a worse first impression than governor perry who has been an extraordinary governor. been elected to office for 25 years, never defeated. three times elected governor of texas. against very tough opponents. at the end of the day his impressions here that the

republicans have both a combination of the debates and this speech he has to overcome. someone is going to emerge as the alternative to romney here. and become the chaser. now whether that's mr. cain or mr. perry or one of the other candidates that's behind we'll see. iowa will be probably the trigger out. but he's going to have to live with this. what they all need to know is that the day of the old day of the casual speech in front of a new hampshire audience or an iowa audience is gone. everything is now on a camera, on a telephone or something. any attempt at humor if you're not a comic or any attempt at basically saying something stupid is going to be there, out there with you the rest of the campaign. you have to live with it. >> schieffer: what do you think, liz? >> you know, i think again i find this all pretty frustrating. this country faces huge, huge challenges. you know, frankly watching a morning show like this one where first we're talking about herman cain allegations and a you-to be.... >> schieffer: we're covering the campaign, liz. >> the issues matter, bob. with all due respect the

american people are out there afraid. they're afraid the economy is going off the cliff. they're afraid the president wants higher taxes and more spending and bigger government. in the midst of all of that, that's what we ought to be talking about. last night in texas you had herman cain annuity gingrich have a very substantive exchange about the issues and a very cordial exchange but one that focused on how important it is to deal with the entitlement crisis, how important it is to create an environment where the private sector is actually going to be willing to invest again. how important it is to look at what's happening in iraq. you know, barack obama likes to talk about what he inherited. he inherited a victory in iraq. he inherited a triple-a bond rating. right now you have a situation where frankly he is going down the wrong path on all of these issues. i just got to imagine that the people who are watching this morning and, you know, voters all across this country want to know who is going to help put this country back on the right track. not, you know, who was able to put together a mash-up of, you know, clips out of a speech that rick perry gave.... >> schieffer: i take your

point. but i would also make the point that we in the media, it is not our job to make the campaign. that is up to the candidates. the candidates determine what the campaign.... >> but you guys choose what you're going to cover, bob. >> schieffer: we show up and cover what's there. >> right. >> schieffer: you and i can talk about this for a long time. >> we'll talk about it later on. >> schieffer: we have for a long time. ed gillespie. was that presidential? is rick perry going to be able to survive it? >> there's a big difference between the howard dean scream and this you-tube video. for one thing people were watching howard dean live. remember it was his response to the loss in the iowa caucuses so there were millions of volters around the country who saw it unfiltered and unedited. i think that people kind of see this you-tube video and it is a clipped job. they think there's probably some selective editing of it. according to the reports out of the rooms that evening, you know, he got rave reviews, standing ovation as i understand it. that said, you know, it was ed rawlins is right. this is the era in which we live. and you can't just give a

speech even kind of less loose a little bit without understanding that that is out there. let me say too i think liz is right. the fact is, you know, these stories are distracting in many ways from what's really going on. i'm here in virginia. have been traveling with the governor. we have elections on tuesday for the state legislature here. and i think we're going to win control of the virginia state senate. i think we're going to win control of the mississippi state house. we're going to make gains in new jersey. people are fed up with what's going on in washington and frustrated with the obama economy. and you're seeing a harbinger of that here just in these state elections coming up soon. >> schieffer: the clock has run out. thanks to all of you for a very interesting exchange. back in a minute. tle emotional here? aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips

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cigarette sent a message that smoking was a cool thing to do. here's just a bit of the ad. >> we need you to get involved because something... together we can do this. we can take this country back. ♪ i am america >> schieffer: cain took issue with our criticism but before it was over he condemned smoking as a bad habit. it's not a cool thing to do. >> it is not a cool thing to do. >> schieffer: three of jon huntsman's daughters came up with their own response. >> we need you to get involved to make sure our next president is based on justice not on sound bites. check out our dad at jon2012.com "i am america ♪ >> schieffer: and the stars of that video are in the studio with us today. we are abby, liddy and mary ann. who thought this up? >> i'm going to give it to liddy this time. >> yeah, i'll take credit for

it. yeah, i had been receiving emails and i had seen the herman cain all over the place. i woke up last week, when was it two weeks ago, a week ago, time has flown by. i was like this is this could be actually something we could spoof and make it, you know, age appropriate and blow bubbles. >> schieffer: so how many hits has this gotten? >> about 300,000 now. it's still growing. >> schieffer: and will you do a sequel? >> well, we're always up to something. >> something might be coming. you'll have to tune in. >> schieffer: where do you all go from here? >> well, the campaign is now calling us their secret weapon. >> we're the most financially friendly resource they have. we're all over the place right now. >> right. >> schieffer: all right. well it's great to have you. i know your dad must be proud of you. it just goes to show that politics can be fun for the whole family. be back in a minute. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

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