Romney reacts to Obama’s support of same-sex marriage

>> joining me now is ed gillespie , former counselor, good morning.

>> good morning. good to be with you.

>> let me start with gay marriage . i felt like there was an incontinues tense tea to mitt romney 's --

>> you felt there was what?

>> not an intensity.

>> his position is clear. he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. that was president obama 's decision until 24 hours ago and now this is a bright line difference in this campaign. chuck, this is going to be a decision in november where there are big differences between the two nominees for the presidency, the incumbent president and governor romney , and government san sanction of same-sex marriage, whether we should go forward with the job killing mandate and job killing bill and continue to press to raise tax. so there is going to be a lot of differences.

>> you guys campaigned on this issue of marriage?

>> sure. i think it's important for people and ingenders strong feelings on both sides. how we talk about our differences, the fact is, that's a significant difference in november.

>> you know, former rnc chairman someone who is for gay marriage , richard gunnell, some people say that he was upset because he was an advocate of gay marriage . do you feel this is a good issue for mitt romney to be campaigning on?

>> well, i believe that it's an issue if you look at the balance, chuck, for example, in the swing state of north carolina . pretty divisive where the voters are. if you look at other states where referendum is held, i don't believe gay marriage as being sanctioned by a state is passed on a referendum. so in terms of the public voting pattern on this, you know, it's one that in the past has shown itself to be the opposition to gay marriage that has prevailed.

>> so he will actively push for a constitutional amendment ?

>> his view is that, given the nature of states sanctioning gay marriage and the full faith and credit clause , federal marriage amendment should be enacted. but i think the truth is, when you look at this election, chuck, i think most people are focused on jobs and the economy and the cost of energy and the health care , the impact of the obamacare bill. i'm not diminishing that it's not an important issue but the most important issue that you have that voters are talking about.

>> the clarity here is that the president has for the state to decide and mitt romney is not?

>> when it comes to marriage.

>> they are reversed when it comes to what they want the federal government to --

>> well, sides of the same-sex marriage as of yesterday.

>> i want to get to you react to rick santorum 's endorsement and move on here. some would describe it as intrepid. here's what he said to jay leno .

>> i have concerns and voiced things that are important to us if we were going to be successful that he would take it and run with it and i felt comfortable after that meeting and over the weekend i worked on it and we decided to put it out tonight so it would be the first thing that people would see this morning.

>> did you feel it was a tepid endorsement or do you feel as if he's 100% are ready to go to work?

>> no. i think rick santorum is totally supportive of governor romney . there was all of this speculation after the primary which was a heavily contested primary. republicans are as strongly if not more strongly behind governor romney as --

>> prominent speaking spot at the convention?

>> i don't know about the convention. look, rick santorum made a very strong race. think he surprised a lot of people. not necessarily me. i've known him for a while and the fact is i know how vigorous a campaigner he is and --

>> sew might not have a role at the convention or --

>> yeah. those decisions aren't made, chuck. we don't have our convention -- as program director for the convention for president bush when he was governor bush in 2000 , august 27 convention. i shut up on the job -- the first week of june.

>> okay. we'll give you a couple more weeks on that. let me ask you about a bloomberg story about how many of the economic advisers on team romney come from the bush administration . as you know, as unpopular as the economy is right now and you guys are making it unpopular and certainly not a lot of popularity for obama's economic policies out there, same is true for bush's economic policies . what is it -- will mitt romney have a different economic policy than president bush or given all of the advisers that he has that come from the bush white house , is it going to be a lot more similar to folks?

>> well, as you know, as in any presidential campaign or white house , you tend to draw heavily, especially when it's a two-term presidency, president obama 's white house , despite having contested the nomination with hillary clinton , that's kind of the nature of where people draw from. governor romney has an ex ting view that is rooted in his history. he advised people where to make investments and see what is going on in the economy and make the right bets and i think that's one of the trades that he brings here and his economic advisers will reinforce that.

>> you feel like he's got a break from bush, he's got to say, look, my economic policies are going to be different because i know you didn't like his either.

>> chuck, the most important break is from president obama . people don't like his economic policies and governor romney would repeal obamacare and make sure people don't keep the health insurance that they like, which now up to 20 million people will lose despite president obama saying, that wouldn't happen. health insurance premiums are rising. he said that wouldn't happen. we would allow for greater energy exploration, allow for the keystone pipeline to go forward. the differences in november are between governor romney 's pro growth economic policies that will create more jobs and bring rising incomes to the american people which have declined by $4,000 versus president obama 's policies which are resulting in fewer jobs and declining family incomes.

>> i want to ask you a story in this morning's washington post . it's a profile of mitt romney 's days in boarding school . there's a portrait of an incident, of a bullying incident that a young mitt romney was involved in, some interviews with some of his former students. i just want to get your reaction to the story. do you feel the portrait was fair and, number two, is the incident troubling to you?

>> governor romney doesn't remember that at all. it was in high school . i suppose if there was an investigative team that went through my high school yearbook, they could find some incidents that i don't remember that if i did remember i might not like but the fact is, when people who know governor romney and know him and his family know that he is a caring, compassionate person. that has been evidenced in his career. and like i said --

>> he doesn't remember the insurance sdme incident?

>> no. that's clear from the story.

>> do you find it troubling?

>> i'm not challenging it. i don't know enough about it. it's a story about pranks in high school and that kind of thi thing. like i said, if someone went back to my high school , i'm sure they could turn up things that i don't remember and even if i did, i would not like that i had done that.