Romney: Obama won election by handing out ‘gifts’ to women, minorities

>>> democrats and republicans are both taking aim at mitt romney , who told donors who lost because president obama handed out big gifts.

>> what the president, president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote.

>> romney said the forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift for college loan voters. he said they were very big with young college age women. and romney said free health care was a big plus. some fellow republicans were quit to reject romney 's assessment. louisiana governor bobby jindal , incoming chair of the governor's association says, quote, i think that's wrong. we have to stop dividing the american voters. we need to go after 100% of the votes, not 53%. and we need to continue to show how our policies helped every voter out there achieve the american dream . which is to be in the middle class . let's bring in our strategy panel, american spectator , contributor, editor j.p.freher. let's start with you, jp. the romney campaign saying he was e will be rating on what he said about the campaign's eftd to target key demographics. most specifically women. are free gifts what sealed the deal for president obama ?

>> well, i don't think this explains what happens in new hampshire. if you look at the turnout in ohio, for instance, romney had fewer votes than mccain. so it doesn't actually explain all that much regarding his loss. i think that romney is just sort of falling back on some bad advice, which he had been receiving through the campaign. it's a real shame. it also positions the party very poof poorly. i think what governor jindal said is very correct. we failed to articulate why republican proposals can really help the poor. how it could help various groups in america. it can help the economy. and that's a story that really didn't get out there in this election, and the republican party needs to get better at doing that.

>> jp, senior obama campaigned a virz david action l roll sent out this tweet in response, saying still looking for america through that 47% prism that tells donors to take him in. do romney 's remarks hurt republicans at a time when they're trying to reach out to minority voters? trying to change the narrative here?

>> it hurts. unfortunately for romney , he's going to play much less of a roll in the party now that his bid is over, now that he lost the election. i think people like bobby jindal will have a much louder voice. i think it's a little bit of a step back. but bobby jindal is putting forward the right kind of message, which is the republican party should be going after 100% of voters, not just 53%.

>> and governor jindal was visibly annoyed by mitt romney ease comments. but the question may be, did he do a good job in speaking for republicans , trying to find a way forward ? a different way?

>> i think governor jindal said all things. the test will come in the months and years about the positions the republican party will have to change. the first test in the fiscal cliff negotiation. are they going to continue to insist that the people at the top who make the most money should not participate in solving the problem. are they going to insist in the beginning of next year when we turn to immigration reform that they're not going to help solve the problem of coming up with a comprehensive immigration reform bill. the problem for the republicans is they have to change positions. when they change positions people in the base will be very unhappy, and it's going to divide the party. but governor jindal is saying all the right things. the questions will be do the actions follow his words?

>> also looking back to try to understand what happened during the 2012 election, running mate paul ryan , as you know, said urban voters gave the president the big margin to win. the critics are saying this is about questioning the democratic get out the vote efforts and mirntds. is it?

>> no. when you look at the numbers, that's not really the reason they lost the election. i think they lost the election for two reasons. one, because they were out of step the majority of american people and two because some of the positions were wrong and people disagreed with them. the reason hispanic voters didn't vote for republicans by a huge margin was because they disagreed with their position. the reason young people did not vote for republicans by a big margin was they disagreed with a lot of their social issue positions on gay and lesbian issues. and so the republicans faced the reality that they're going to have to listen to the american people and change some of their substantive policy positions if they're going to attract these voters.

>> you know, j.p., they also lost some largely world battleground states with majorities like new hampshire and iowa. is it really just talking about the examples cited? specifically ohio and virginia?

>> think it's worthwhile that the republican party left a lot of voters on the table. they didn't pursue everyone. paul ryan said he wanted to go to inner cities and talk about the economic message. that's something the party should be doing. i understand what steve is talking about regarding not being agreed with by young voters, but let's be honest. was the romney campaign going after all of the people that it could have? absolutely not. so there was an outreach effort that they had never bothderred to approach. and that's something the republican party will have to do better with in the coming years.

>> thank you so much.

>> thank you.