GOP needs to do some soul-searching

>>> republican party leaders meeting in north carolina for the first time since their big november loss agreed that the party has some problems.

>> we have real challenges. and we did get whipped in the presidential election . and that's not something that we take lightly.

>> but so far, there is no consensus about how to fix them. republican national committee chairman, reince priebus, is expected to be re-elected today, after quietly making nice with ron paul supporters and heading off any challenge to his leadership. he'll call for a, quote, republican renewal, in a speech this afternoon. but the rnc committee drafting the plan for change is made up of party insiders, rather than anyone who's likely to break china. meanwhile, republican governors are griping privately and publicly that the gop in washington is doing nothing to help the republican brand, after being schooled by new jersey governor chris christie . washington republicans got a talking-to last night from louisiana governor , bobby jindal , who said the gop has to stop being a stupid party and talk like adults.

>> today's conservatism is completely wrapped up in solving the hideous mess that is the federal budget . we have seemed to have an obsession with government bookkeeping. this is a rigged game, and it is the wrong game for us to play.

>> and in a barely veiled reference to mitt romney and other republicans , jindal said republicans need to make it clear that they are a, quote, populous party .

>> we must quit being -- we are not the party of big business , big banks, big wall street bailouts, big corporate loophole loopholes, or big anything. we must not be the party that simply protects the welloff, so they can keep their toys.

>> nbc's senior political editor, mark murray is here, and he joins me now. and mark, it seems is if at any time a party gets thumped, they always have this come to jesus moment. we need to change what we've been doing before, we need to radically alter our strategy. reince priebus is going to say this to the rnc. "it's time to stop lacking at elections through the lens of battleground states . we have four years until the next presidential election , and being a blue state is not a permanent diagnosis. simple outreach a few months before an election will not suffice. in fact, let's stop talking about reaching out and start working on welcoming in." what can the gop really do? and as you know very well, you saw the party insiders, there's a tremendous divide between party insiders and the grassroots. what can they really do to try to nationalize as a party ?

>> well, luke, where republicans are right now is where democrats were just eight years ago. that is good news if you're a republican party . but the republicans , a lot of them are actually take an all of the above approach. we need to model and re-do better our campaign mechanics. we need to reach out better to latinos. we need to soften our tone on social issues. but there is an interesting divide going on between the bobby jindals and the chris christie of the world, the republican governors, versus some of the republican insiders who might be eyeing the white house . and bobby jindal 's argument was, look, we need to get away from the divisive budget battles that are occurring in washington , d.c. they're not doing us any good. let's focus on what's happening in the states, let's focus on the economy. let's look at what we're doing outside of washington , d.c. but on the other hand, you're seeing the marco rubios of the world focus on immigration reform , from his perch on capitol hill . you're seeing paul ryan work on the republicans ' budget. so there is that interesting outsider versus insider dynamic going on.

>> fascinating. we always say governors are pragmatic, and that seems to be what the divide is right now. i want to bring up something which is fascinating in battleground states . excuse me. republicans in these states, virginia , michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, they control the state legislature , they're trying to move legislation that would make it so it's not winner take all in the electoral college . that it's proportional, so that if you have -- you win via the congressional district , which a lot of republicans are saying, well, it means local control, but take virginia , northern virginia would get the same vote as out near tennessee, which has much less population. what is the purpose behind this?

>> look, it's all about giving the republicans a significant advantage in these battleground states that they've lost in the past two presidential cycles. your example of virginia , president obama won the state by four percentage points, won it by 150,000 votes. but by allocating the electoral votes by congressional district , mitt romney would have won nine electoral votes in virginia to barack obama 's four. if you take that entire system nationally, emory university pointed o out that mitt romney would have won 272 electoral votes to barack obama 's 276 electoral votes to barack obama 's 262. mitt romney would have been the president of the united states . this is fundamentally changing the rules. this would be like saying, we want the nfl to change the rules, a quarterback can no longer run in the offense anymore.

>> democrats have brought this up before, but in this day and age, with twitter, and with everything such in focus, do you think republicans can really push this through, or will the public outcry be so much to say, look, president obama won by hundreds of thousands of votes in virginia . why could you do this?

>> luke, that remains the to be seen. "the washington post " is reporting that virginia 's senate will be acting on this legislation as early as next week. we'll look to see. reince priebus, the rnc chairman, who's supposed to be re-elected as rnc chairman was interviewed a few weeks ago where he said, look, i think some of the states that are proposing this is a pretty good idea, although he says that the rnc doesn't have the final word on this, it will be interesting to see what other republican leaders have to say. because at the end of the day , this is looking like republicans want to change the rule because they're realize or are acknowledgining they can't win over the current season.

>> it will be interesting to see how it plays out. mark murray , appreciate it.

>>> the markets are giving treasury secretary tim geithner quite a sendoff on his last day in off, that is today.