Predicting the future of the GOP

>> in other goings on within the establishment, republicans trying to figure out how they, the establishment figures exercise more influence in their primaries to end what they call their aiken angle problem. today the efforts dealt a blow. the current lieutenant governor of virginia is set to drop out of the 2013 virginia gubernatorial race. he was endorsed by outgoing governor macdonald. he was mitt romney 's virginia campaign chairman. the establishment-backed guy and leaves the door open for tea party darling known to virginians and many others as the kuch. thes state 's current attorney general. we also have elsewhere and popular west virginia moderate, shelly moore capito to challenge jay rockefeller and rebuked by tea party senator jim demint and the club for growth among other conservatives and in georgia incumbent senator chambliss looks like he's facing challenges from the right flank and one of those considering a run is conservative blogger and activist erick erickson . they're early indications of will the republican party be able to overcome what has been a major issue for them? i mean, they have had two election cycles now where they failed to take control of the senate in part because of nominating extreme and unelectable candidates. these are troubling signs for them. virginia 's my home state and i have watched the kuch probably a bit more than most and he's more polished, more capable of a politician than a todd aiken but just as far to the right and extreme. as attorney general he pretried to prevent universities in the state from including sexual orientation in nondiscrimination policies and a witch hunt against a former uva professor of climate science as a state senator, as the republican party is trying to move more to the center on immigration, he was really out there on that trying to amend the 14th amendment not to allow children born to legal immigrants to be citizens and wanted to keep people who don't speak english from collecting unemployment benefits .

>> not illegal immigrants .

>> no. just people that don't speak english. a little bit of birtherism in there and maybe suggested that obama stole the election.

>> i know a lot of legal citizens who can barely speak english.

>> they deserve unemployment benefits .

>> talking about the future of the republican party and this is very early after 2012 election and what this says, i don't think it really -- there's a couple issues and doesn't tell us too much. virginia issue more about the political culture and the virginia primary. virginia republican party , excuse me, because the virginia republican party decided a vote of about 75 people in the state we don't have a primary next year and doing it in the state convention and where the nomination is given out and a longstanding problem in virginia for republicans and a couple other states where this happens with a convention and just most conservative elements that dominate. almost 20 years ago a state convention to get oliver north . the one candidate to have lost in 1994 . 1996 , john warner , an icon defeated at the republican convention but had the option of forcing a primary. that's how he was able to survive that year. so i think that's the specifics. what i'm looking for outside of virginia and in general of the republican party is question i'm asking is are the terms of debate going to expand over the next few years? the problem isn't you have primary challengers but the primary challenges, a, succeeding. people who have never won before the sort of tea party -obama era. the terms of debate sonar row that it's forced nontea party, nonfringe people to mimic the behavior. think of tommy thompson last year -- this year who was the dreamed republican candidate in that senate race. former governor, four terms, popular name. he couldn't run as moderate tommy thompson but tommy thompson promising to get rid of medicare and how he got the nomination and republican the base from revolting. those are the terms of debate within the party that's acceptable. we don't know now and it's a process and are those terms of debate and on taxes and entitlements, the safety net --

>> steve let me cut you off. we have tape of the president. let's go to that now.

>> well, listen. this is a wonderful opportunity for me to meet with my full cabinet for the first time since the election took place. the primary purpose for my perspective is to say thank you because everybody here in their respective agencies has done a