Logging in as >console from the login screen (no password) takes you to the console login.
But if it doesn't accept your root password in the terminal, it won't from the console login...
Make sure you're typing the password correctly and that the caps lock is off. If it still doesn't accept the password, you might have a bigger issue... fortunately I believe this can be a known OS X problem, so some searching on various sites may provide a fix.
Zach