GOP Searches For New Vision
By: NBC News
Updated: January 25, 2013
Republicans are trying to revive their party after two presidential defeats and sinking poll numbers.
Meeting in Charlotte, the GOP re-elected their party chairman, Reince Priebus.
"We're going to be the party for everybody, everywhere across America," Priebus promised.
The GOP is in trouble.
Mitt Romney was beaten.
President Obama, empowered by his win, forced Republicans to back down on the debt ceiling
and laid out a liberal agenda for his second term.
Polls show the Republican party out of favor with the young, minorities and women, and not just at the ballot box.
49% of the nation now sees the Republican party negatively in the latest NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll.
Only 26% view them positively.
Democrats are doing far better, with a net positive.
That prompted hand-ringing at the GOP winter meeting.
"We've got to stop being the stupid party," lamented Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Jindal pointed to GOP Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, whose comments about rape angered women.
"It's no secret we had a number of Republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I'm here to say we've had enough of that," Jindal said.
Some Republicans in four states with Republican legislatures want to change the winner-take-all electoral college system in their states.
That gave President Obama a big win.
Mitt Romney would have been closer under the newly proposed system.
Former Party Chair Haley Barbour says that's not the answer, and the the gop will recover.
"But we've got a lot of work to do," Barbour says. "We've got some cleaning up to do. We've got some making up to do. We've got some stretching out to do, to bring some people in."
Leaders say the likely Republican plan will be to stress pro growth, low-tax policies.
