Why the GOP can't seem to agree on why they lost 2012

>> i think there's a lot of snow coming into washington. wintry days. you guys noticed it's colder in march? freezing. middle of february, i said, okay, i'm a florida guy, but i'm okay with with the changes of the seasons. turns march and i expect to be on the beach. it is cold out there.

>> march is the cruellest month here. i'm telling you, man. you think you're in spring, you're not.

>> you know what i've always said. beware.

>> can we do politico?

>> with us now, the chief white house correspondent for politico, mike allen , with a look at his playbook. good morning.

>> good morning.

>> we still have some postgame analysis about what went wrong for republicans in 2012 . still the consensus among many top leaders in the republican party , a lot of people with a lot of different ideas about what went wrong and how to fix it going forward. what are they?

>> this is a new sign of how it's hurting republicans that they don't have any clear leader. ever since the election, which is now four months past, republicans on the hill have been involved in the budget fights. nobody's really figured out what happened. it'll be very interesting to hear governor bush on this one when he's on. what politico found in the story is that republicans are divided. some of them argue that the problem is cosmetic, that they need new and better candidates, younger, more diverse. some people are arguing it's dated. that this democratic advantage will continue to be decisive. others are saying it's ideological and policy. no one can agree on what the problem is let alone a solution. in the next couple weeks, the republican national committee will be coming out with its findings and its autopsy. but the parties are so much weakened now that there are these outside groups. so maggie has people saying they really miss a haley barber like figure, somebody who can knock some heads in the party and get hem all moving in one direction.

>> steve schmidt, isn't it the answer that it's sort of all of these things? you have karl rove saying it's candidate quality. that's true in some cases. it's true they didn't connect with minority voters. also that they were outrun by the obama campaign in terms of grassroots organization and technology. isn't it all those things put together?

>> we have many problems, and they're deep problems. one of the things that's a big problem for republicans is this notion that we lost the election because the obama administration, the president gave stuff away to people. there's a part of the electorate like children looking for free stuff. you win elections because you can make a case to people that you have a plan to make their lives better. you have a vision for the future of the country. you have a plan to move the country forward. we're just totally deficient in this space. not to mention, and it's no small thing, the cast of characters and loons who dominated that primary stage. from michele bachman talking about immunizations to the dozens of others we could throw out. i think part of our problem that's fixed is our leaders and responsible people get more forward on the stage.

>> 9-9-9.

>> exactly.

>> that's all i got to say, man. people come out and say, we have to change our belief systems , change our values. that's not the case. i think we have to be able to articulate how what we believe is relevant to more than just ageing white guys who make over $100,000. as you know, the republicans who win campaigns and are dangerous -- everybody, when i ran, no republican had won in my district. working class voters all voted for me. you go through working class neighborhoods and every pickup truck wasn't the democrats. it's so funny. you go around the bayou and where the doctors live, not there. you get to where the country was, all those people voted for me. that's what we've lost, that ronald reagan populist appeal.

>> absolutely. if you look at new jersey, for example, chris christie , he's put the state's fiscal house into order. he's taken on the teachers unions. he's taken on the excesses of public employee unions. he straightened the state out. he has record number of support with hispanics in new jersey. republicans can advance conservative agenda and get the support of minorities and women and democrats.

>> okay.

>> when we were in tampa, we were walking down that street. i wish i knew what was street was. there were a bunch of little ranch houses. every time i saw a ranch house of about 200 square feet , i go, they're voting for me. the bigger the house got, i go, probably voting for my opponent. so there were these ranch houses lined up. i said, look at these houses. there were people out in the yard. i said, how many people here do you think are going to vote for mitt romney ? we looked and said, some, but not enough.

>> yeah.

>> you know what? it's my ranch house theory. you can look at a ranch house that's maybe 20, 25 years old. if you're not winning that house as a republican, you're not winning the election. we have lost middle class , working class voters. we're not going to win again until we can explain why conservatism makes their lives better. and we haven't done that in a while. we need to get back to it.

>> okay.

>> and jeb bush has answers on that. he's going to be on in a couple minutes.

>> by the way, all those people in tampa voted for jeb bush .

>> mike allen , thanks for a look at the playbook.

>> the playbook on the smackdown on charlie rose , scarborough schools krugman.

>> are you serious? that's kind of cool.

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