On Thursday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose shamelessly boosted the Obama campaign's talking point about the economy: "The President will...say, things are in much better shape...so my policies are, at long last, working." When Haley Barbour replied that "the liberal media leads you to think that the economy's getting great," Rose sneered, "I didn't realize you think the Federal Reserve chairman is a liberal media elite" [audio available here [1] ].
The CBS anchor also raised Mitt Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom's recent
"Etch-A-Sketch" comment with the former Mississippi governor: "You
have a candidate who conservatives don't seem to be sure about. And
now, you have this Etch-a-Sketch thing. Does that simply make their
doubts deeper?"
Towards the end of the segment, Barbour criticized the Republican
presidential candidate for getting off the main message of Obama's
policies: "It's not that it's bad to have a contest. We need to
be focused on Obama's policies. If this election is a referendum on
Obama's policies, he's going to lose." Rose followed up by
asking, "If it is not on his policy, the Republicans will lose?" The
former RNC head replied, "No, he has a better chance of winning if it's
not about his policies. And that's why you hear his supporters say- oh, it's not a referendum on his policies. Well, they don't want it to be."
The journalist then forwarded the point from the Obama campaign, which
led to a back and forth between him and Barbour on the economy:
ROSE:
The economy's improving, so the President will go to the country and
say, things are in much better shape- well, they're trending up, so my
policies are, at long last, working.
BARBOUR: Well, here, the administration and the liberal media leads you
to think that the economy's getting great. But, Charlie, you know, when
we were growing up, there was an old-
ROSE: I didn't realize you think the Federal Reserve chairman [Ben Bernanke] is a liberal media elite.
BARBOUR: When you get to- well, the Federal Reserve chairman
has talked about the headwinds, the problems, the difficulties, the
pitfalls. But the economy is, thank goodness, getting a little better,
but it reminds me, when we were kids in the South, there used to be a
country song (Rose laughs) and the lyrics were, I've been down so long,
it looks like up to me now-
ROSE: (laughs) I know the song, Governor-
BARBOUR: Of course, you do....So, compared to Obama's policies for the last couple of years, we
have seen a little improvement in employment. But Charlie, last month,
58.6 percent of Americans had a job- 58.6 percent of adult Americans
were working. Except for the Obama administration, that is the lowest
percentage since 1983....For thirty years! And so, let's- I hope it gets better, but let's don't act like this is morning in America.
ROSE: A phrase that Ronald Reagan used at the time of his second campaign....
Earlier in the interview, Rose highlighted the Etch-A-Sketch remark from Fehrnstrom. An on-screen graphic made light of the comment: "Shaking Up The Race: Barbour On Romney Etch-A-Sketch Comment":
ROSE: You also have a political race here, and you have a candidate who
conservatives don't seem to be sure about. And now, you have this
Etch-a-Sketch thing. Does that simply make their doubts deeper?
BARBOUR: Well, let me say, first of all- yeah, Mitt Romney is not as conservative as Haley Barbour, but he's....far, far, far better than Barack Obama, and that's what this is about.
ROSE: And is he conservative enough for Haley Barbour?
BARBOUR: Against Barack Obama, you better believe it. There's no
question about that. Barack Obama is the great uniter of Republicans,
and if Mitt wins the nomination, or Rick [Santorum] or Newt [Gingrich]
or anybody else-
ROSE: So you're saying that if Mitt Romney is the nominee, he'll have no problem with conservatives?...
BARBOUR: Our party will unite behind him, and there's always going to
be somebody saying, he's not perfect. Well, there's not going to be a
perfect candidate this year or any other year that I've ever been
involved in politics.
During an earlier interview with Barbour on February 27, 2012, Rose filibustered the former governor's attack [2] on the President "ripping" the Constitution. The Republican accused Obama of "forcing...abortion pills" on the Catholic Church, after the CBS anchor took Rick Santorum's criticism of John F. Kennedy out of context. Rose then interrupted Barbour and replied, "Wait...he [Santorum] was talking about...Kennedy, not...Obama."
The full transcript of Charlie Rose and Erica Hill's interview of Haley Barbour, which aired 12 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour of Thursday's CBS This Morning:
ERICA HILL:
Mitt Romney's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination,
meantime, is trying to recover from the latest setback. Although he
received an important endorsement from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
yesterday, a comment by one of Romney's aides has others raising doubts
about the former governor.
ERIC FEHRNSTROM, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN (from interview on CNN):
Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of
shake it up and we start all over again.
HILL (off-camera): Romney went into damage control.
MITT ROMNEY, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running as a conservative
Republican. I was a conservative Republican governor. I'll be running as
a conservative Republican nominee- or, excuse me, at that point,
hopefully- nominee for president. The policies and positions are the
same.
RICK SANTORUM, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (from campaign event): Well,
that should be comforting to all of you who are voting in this primary-
that whoever you're going to vote for is going to be a completely new
candidate.
ROSE (on-camera): Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is joining
us now. He also used to chair the Republican National Committee.
Welcome, Governor.
HALEY BARBOUR, FORMER RNC CHAIR: Thanks, Charlie.
[CBS News Graphic: "Fight For The Right: Fmr. RNC Chair On GOP Battle"]
ROSE: I want to get to 'Etch-a-Sketch' in just a moment, but first, this
decision and this endorsement by Jeb Bush, who says, it's time to
unite.
BARBOUR: Well, that's for the candidates to decide. These guys have been
out there and they've run and worked hard, and it's not for me to say,
people ought to get out. Pretty soon, the Republican voters are going to
have coalesced behind somebody- hadn't done that yet, but maybe we're
on the verge of that. And that's when the decisions ought to be made.
It's not for somebody else to say, so and so ought to get out of the
way. That's not the way the system works.
[CBS News Graphic: "Fight For The Right: Fmr. RNC Chair On Jeb Bush Endorsement"]
ROSE: Yeah, but you yourself have said about this campaign, it's all
been about each other, and they have not focused on the President, and
if they don't do that, they're going to be in a bad place when the
general election comes.
BARBOUR: There's no question that every minute that Republicans spend
talking about anything other than Barack Obama's policies and the failed
results of those policies, that we're not on our best subject.
ROSE: Are you prepared to unite and support Governor Romney?
BARBOUR: Well, once this is over, and I'm not- we may be on the verge of
that- but I don't know. One thing I've got- smart enough about the
unpredictability of this race is, I quit predicting, because I'm not
that dumb. (Rose laughs) But the fact of the matter is, Romney now has a
chance, again, to build on Illinois and get people to coalesce behind
him. And, you know, that may or may not happen, but that's really up to
the Republican voters, and you've got to trust the voters. That's the
way this system should work.
ROSE: You also have a political race here, and you have a candidate who
conservatives don't seem to be sure about. And now, you have this
Etch-a-Sketch thing. Does that simply make their doubts deeper?
BARBOUR: Well, let me say, first of all- yeah, Mitt Romney is not as conservative as Haley Barbour, but he's-
ROSE: (laughs) Yes-
BARBOUR: But he is far, far, far better than Barack Obama, and that's what this is about.
[CBS News Graphic: "Shaking Up The Race: Barbour On Romney Etch-A-Sketch Comment"]
ROSE: And is he conservative enough for Haley Barbour?
BARBOUR: Against Barack Obama, you better believe it. There's no
question about that. Barack Obama is the great uniter of Republicans,
and if Mitt wins the nomination, or Rick [Santorum] or Newt [Gingrich]
or anybody else-
ROSE: So you're saying that if Mitt Romney is the nominee, he'll have no problem with conservatives?
BARBOUR: If Mitt Romney is the nominee-
ROSE: No problem- they'll be there with the candidate?
BARBOUR: Our party will unite behind him, and there's always going to be
somebody saying, he's not perfect. Well, there's not going to be a
perfect candidate this year or any other year that I've ever been
involved in politics.
HILL: Not going to be a perfect candidate- I want to go back on one
thing you touched on with Charlie, though. As we talk about this
drawn-out process, you yourself have said, this is bad for the process-
to draw it out like that. Yet, I know you don't want to influence
anybody's vote. So should anybody, then, be speaking out? Should we have
Jeb Bush supporting him? Should we have people pushing for those
endorsements?
BARBOUR: I think it's fine for people to do that. I just- I'm not going to do it. I don't-
HILL: Do you think they're effective, though- an endorsement?
BARBOUR: Oh, sometimes- I think with- Jeb Bush is a very, very popular,
well-regarded, and rightly well-regarded person in our party, from a
very important target state.
HILL: Is there anybody who you think could come out in support of a
different candidate- say, Rick Santorum, say Newt Gingrich, who you
voted for in your primary- who you think would be an important voice for
one of them, who could tip the tables?
BARBOUR: Oh, I don't know about tipping the tables. I mean, people are
important; people get listened to, have influence; but endorsements
usually don't change people's votes- may get them to think about
something; may put something in their mind- but in this contest, when I
say the process has been bad, it's for the reason Charlie said. It's not
that it's bad to have a contest. We need to be focused on Obama's
policies. If this election is a referendum on Obama's policies, he's
going to lose.
ROSE: And if it is not?
BARBOUR: Then, he has-
ROSE: If it is not on his policy, the Republicans will lose?
BARBOUR: No, he has a better chance of winning if it's not about his
policies. And that's why you hear his supporters say- oh, it's not a
referendum on his policies. Well, they don't want it to be.
ROSE: The economy's improving, so the President will go to the country
and say, things are in much better shape- well, they're trending up, so
my policies are, at long last, working.
BARBOUR: Well, here, the administration and the liberal media leads you
to think that the economy's getting great. But, Charlie, you know, when
we were growing up, there was an old-
ROSE: I didn't realize you think the Federal Reserve chairman [Ben Bernanke] is a liberal media elite.
BARBOUR: When you get to- well, the Federal Reserve chairman has talked
about the headwinds, the problems, the difficulties, the pitfalls. But
the economy is, thank goodness, getting a little better, but it reminds
me, when we were kids in the South, there used to be a country song
(Rose laughs) and the lyrics were, I've been down so long, it looks like
up to me now-
ROSE: (laughs) I know the song, Governor-
BARBOUR: Of course, you do-
ROSE: (Hill laughs) I know the song-
BARBOUR: So, compared to Obama's policies for the last couple of years,
we have seen a little improvement in employment. But Charlie, last
month, 58.6 percent of Americans had a job- 58.6 percent of adult
Americans were working. Except for the Obama administration, that is the
lowest percentage since 1983-
ROSE: So jobs-
BARBOUR: For thirty years! And so, let's- I hope it gets better, but let's don't act like this is morning in America.
ROSE: A phrase that Ronald Reagan used at the time of his second campaign- thank you, Governor. It was great to see you-
BARBOUR: Thank you, Charlie-
ROSE: Come back any time-
HILL: Thanks-
BARBOUR: Yes.
— Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [3].