VandeHei: RNC chair Priebus to drop a 'truth bomb' on donors

>>> all right. time now, 28 past the hour to take a look at the "morning papers." "the wall street journal ." despite massive sales of its signature devices, apple stock tumbled 11% with the company falling short of expectations. the company turned a $13 billion profit and saw increased sales of iphones and ipads by nearly 30% and 50% respectively, but it still wasn't enough for many investors. the stock is down dramatically. near $200 from its peak of just over 700 three months ago. interesting to you, rattner?

>> oh, it's very interesting because apple, of course, at one point was the most valuable country on earth. and what's interesting about it -- and i don't think it has anything to do with steve jobs dying. huh?

>> you just called it the most valuable country on earth. i wasn't sure whether you were being glib or not.

>> in any event, this really is not about steve jobs dying. these companies have very, very long product pipelines. what it's really about is that apple is a phone company . more than half of its sales come from the phone. and what you're seeing with iphone 5 are people basically saying, i don't want to pay $600. i'll get an iphone 4, an older iphone . verizon reported the other day that the number of customers hooking up older iphones as a percentage has been growing. i think apple is hitting price resistance at this point.

>> we have what are called technology bursts. and from the 4 to the 5, there's not th until you start to introduce new movements forward, and that's the big wall. it really is.

>> so that's why they're scaling it down a little bit. they're talking about making a smaller phone.

>> exactly. that's why they're offering a cheaper phone because they know they're kind of hitting their wall.

>> "new york times," the percentage of the work force in unions is at a 100-year low according to a new report. labor analysts cited new laws in states like wisconsin and indiana and the expansion of companies in nonunion states.

>> "the seattle times ," a battery like the one in boeing 787 dreamliner exploded in a lab in 2006 . setting off a volatile fire that destroyed the building in which it was housed. the u.s. and european fleets of dreamliners have been temporarily grounded until technical issues are resolved including problems with lithium batteries that have caught fire.

>> i think that's probably a good idea.

>> going to be a long time before mika gets on a 787.

>> let's look at "politico." joining us with a look at the "playbook," executive editor jim vandehei . good morning.

>> good morning. a special treat for you today. in solidarity with my dear friend beyonce, i'm going to lip-sync my analysis.

>> mika did that the other day.

>> i tried. it didn't work so well. i still don't get it, willie.

>> were you offended that she perhaps lip-synced?

>> she lip-synced.

>> i know, but what do you not get? it's not yo- yo ma four years ago.

>> i have a problem with all of it.

>> do you really?

>> it's not a world crisis, but we're losing authenticity everywhere. this is the inauguration.

>> oh, god.

>> it's not oh, god. you're actually deceiving, ripping it out. people think they're watching -- i don't know, like i said, this is not a world crisis.

>> you're an advertising guy and you're lamenting the death of awe then advertise snit.

>> no, that the great advertisers understand authenticity. in the scheme of things, is it a big deal ? no. i just think it's wrong.

>> does it hurt her brand?

>> no she's fine. she 's wonderful .

>> let's get back to business.

>> she's awesome.

>> let's talk about what joe has been talking about every day for a couple of years, and that's what's wrong with the republican party . in this year's general election , obviously cause for a little bit of self-reflection. the chair of the rnc, reince priebus, says he has now the secret to the comeback. what's he got up his sleeve?

>> well, you know, they've done all these autopsies over the last couple of months, and priebus will be speaking to the winter meeting on friday. we got a sneak peek at his remarks. basically what officials are saying is he has to drop a truth bomb on rnc donors and let them know the extent of the problems facing the republican party . hispanics, for instance, he's going to say it's not just immigration reform . even if we do that, we still have the exact same problems with hispanic voters that we had even before immigration reform . so it's going to require years of retooling, years of communicating with that constituency. same with asian voters. same with veterans. he's saying that they have problems at the party level in having to repair the fabric of the party in the 50 different states. repair how they communicate and connect with people through technology. and that there's a huge project in front of them that's going to require donors to kick in a lot of money so they can retool and modernize the republican party . so there is at least some self-awareness among republicans at the establishment level that big change is coming. it's still not totally clear to me exactly how they change and how that actually affects things programmatically for the republican party .

>> jim, how do they retool, though, against the forces of demographics which are working against them? numbers against mitt romney among latinos as you pointed out were terrible if you look at the future and moving in the wrong direction for the republican party among young people , african-americans. how do they do something about that in the short term?

>> i think the first thing is just realizing you have a problem, which they didn't do prior to this election. and then it's, you know, getting out there and actually i think getting back to the basics for their entire party. training candidates, recruiting candidates that are young, that are more demographically diverse and being able to talk about the good parts of republican theology that resonate with independent voters, smaller government, more free markets and doing that over years. it takes a sustained effort. if you look at the democratic success that thiey've had through technology and organization, a lot of that's been in the works for ten years. the stuff you can't just flick a switch. and for republicans, there's a sense of urgency because those demographic trends don't get better. they get worse. the share of the electorate that's white is going down, not up. and nothing's going to change that.

>> jim vandehei , lip-syncing his way through the latest beltway news.

>> well done.

>> jim, thanks. we'll see you.

>>> coming up, manti te'o speaks out on camera for the first time since the whole fake girlfriend story broke last week. we'll play some of that for you when we