Jerry Brown details the GOP’s ‘suicide mission’

MR. GREGORY: Governor Brown , you, you, this is not your first rodeo or campaign. You've run for the presidency, of course, as well. A couple of questions about this. You know, you were one who kept the fight going against Bill Clinton all the way to the convention. Do you see that happening on the Republican side this year?

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D-CA): Well, I certainly think Ron Paul 's going to keep going.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

GOV. BROWN: And why not? The campaign is there to illuminate the issues and give voters a real insight into the character of the candidate. So yeah, I say keep going all the way.

MR. GREGORY: You, you talked to my colleague Tom Brokaw recently, and you thought the other side, the Republicans , were on a, "a suicide mission." What were you referring to?

GOV. BROWN: Well, the extreme move to the right, they want to take away contraceptives from American women, the recklessness with regard to Iran . I mean, have there been no lessons learned? Obama took over the country after it was in a gigantic mess. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month and now we're on the road to recovery. And I think what we're looked at -- what we're looking at is a reasonable man vs. reckless men. And that's really becoming very evident through the Republican primaries .

MR. GREGORY: You -- education, of course, a big issue in both of your states. How do you react to Senator Santorum 's view about Obama and higher education?

GOV. BROWN: Well, it's not the way I would frame it. Everyone should have a right and an opportunity to go to college and yes, we should have technical training like they do in Germany . I'd also emphasize, which Mr. Santorum doesn't, that joint labor management apprentice programs for pipe fitters and electricians and sheet metal workers and carpenters, I'd like to see a lot more of that and that takes union and management cooperation, something that the Republican candidates seem very hostile to.