Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean (D-VT) discussed with co-hosts Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell Wednesday's presidential debate live today, Oct. 5, 2012, on CBS THIS MORNING on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM – 9:00 AM).
Below is the transcript of the interview:
ROSE: What happened and who do you think is responsible and what does the President have to do now?
DEAN: First of all, I don't think big mistakes -- this is a lot of hand-wringing. I thought the President did fine. Mitt Romney was very aggressive and they should've been prepared for that. He had been very aggressive a couple weeks before on one of the Sunday talk shows and he's got his message down well. I thought the President preferred to remain presidential and he did remain presidential. I actually think Romney did himself some damage. He did well in the debate, from the debating point of view, but the truth is, he's become totally untethered from everything he said before and with this final sort of apology for the 47 percent remark he really does look like a guy who will say absolutely anything to get to be President of the United States. People don't vote for that, they really don't.
ROSE: You really think that the President scored better than Gov. Romney in the debate?
DEAN: No, I thought it was a tie. I thought he had to look presidential and he did do that. Would I have liked it to be more aggressive? Yes. Do I think the team didn't prepare him for the aggressive Romney that I saw a few weeks ago in the Sunday shows? No. I think they didn't prepare him. But the President has to look presidential. I don't think
President Obama is going to call Mitt Romney a liar on the next debate, that's not presidential. I do think he's going to be much more aggressive. I don't think Romney is necessarily a liar, I think he just manages to convince himself that any position is fine at the time. Ted Kennedy had it best. When Romney debated, Ted Kennedy said you know I'm the pro-choice candidate and my opponent is the multiple-choice candidate. Mitt Romney says whatever he has to say, and there's no core belief there, and that's going to be a problem for him in the general election because I don't think people are into that. I think they get that politicians will say anything and Obama doesn't do that. Obama pretty much tells it like it is. Did he do a good job on the debate? No. He could've been more aggressive.
O'DONNELL: I want to ask you about Vice President Biden yesterday on the stump, some comments that people are calling a gaffe by Biden where he said, you know, "Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars. Well, guess what, yes we do." Is that the right kind of message?
DEAN: Wait a minute. Excuse me, but the rest of that you haven't in full context. Yes, we're going to raise taxes on the wealthy. They've been saying that for a year and specifically he said we're not going to raise taxes on the middle class, that's what he said. This is not a gaffe. This is a media hand-wringing again. When I was campaigning, lots of people accused me of gaffes all the time and I realized that a gaffe is what people say in Washington when you tell the truth and they don't think you should have. Yeah, the Democrats are going raise taxes on wealthy people so we can help balance the budget and avoid raising taxes on middle-class people. I think that's a pretty reasonable thing, it's what they've been saying for a year.
ROSE: Do you think this debate has consequences for this campaign?
DEAN: I think it's a good wake-up call for the President. You're going to have to be more aggressive than you have been. You're going to have to call Gov. Romney out on his multiple changes and his multiple policies on every issue. Heck, he changes immigration policies, his economic policy and his attitudes towards the 47 percent all in a period of one week.
ROSE: Many people are saying now that what they saw was the Gov. Romney that they've known all along. What's been the problem in the past is they haven't seen that person and he finally emerged during the debate.
DEAN: So, you mean he lied through his teeth in the Republican primaries when he said he was going to cut taxes for wealthy people and veto the Dream Act and all this-
ROSE: No, I'm talking about how aggressive he was.
DEAN: He's been aggressive before. I think he's a good debater, he's well-prepared, he's obviously smart and he doesn't seem to stand for anything because he says whatever he thinks he has to say. He has moved all the way back towards the middle from his extreme positions in the primary and I don't know which Mitt Romney to believe in. But I don't think I believe in any of them, because I think this is a guy who says whatever he thinks it takes to win the presidency.
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