Mitt Romney blames loss on minorities

>>> thanks for staying with us tonight. president obama wasn't the only one speaking out today. the mr. mitt romney held a conference call with his high-dollar donors. romney seemed to double down on his 47% comments. romney said the president won by following the old playbook and giving gifts to, quote, the african-american community, the hispanic community, and young people . the former candidate went on to say this. "with regards to the young people , for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. and then finally, obama care also made a difference for them because, as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parent's plan, and that was a big gift too to young people ." for more, let's turn to john nichols , washington correspondent of "the nation" magazine and author of the book "uprising." it doesn't sound like mitt romney has learned anything in the last week.

>> the interesting thing is that back in october, when he was really getting a hard time for the 47%, he went on fox and he said, i was totally wrong. well, it turns out he was lying to fox, of all people. because the fact is, this goes deeper. this is actually not just saying there's 47% that relies on government. he's actually saying that young people , people of color in this country, working folks can be bribed with contraception, to make their -- they do their total vote on --

>> what do you think he was saying, referring to them as gifts? when the people of this country voted for the president, when he said he was going to reform health care , and the voters in the senate and house of representatives went along with it to pass something. how can that with a gift?

>> well, it's not a gift. this is government. and unfortunately, it seems to me that mitt romney has been listening not to conservative media , but to the fringe of the right wing. the people who actually think this country is divided into makers and takers. now, that's a big paul ryan line. and this is a fantasy. the fact of the matter is, we have a government in this country that does some things. and most of what mitt romney 's objecting to is government.

>> was there a racial component here? and i ask that question, because mitt romney is talking about giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest americans , but president obama can't have a plan for young people or african-americans or hispanics? how else do you read it?

>> well, it's the same -- look, paul ryan did an interview just this week where he was talking about the urban areas voting in a certain way. and it seems that this is the fantasy, the delusion that they've decided to carry on. that they didn't lose because their ideas were bad, day didn't lose because they made mistakes. in fact, in this call, mitt romney complimented his campaign. they lost because somehow the 47% was given so many gifts that it grew into 51%.

>> does it make it harder for the republican party to patch up their image and their vision for the future when they are going to be dogged by comments like this, as to why they lost the last presidential election? it's not inclusive. how do they repair that?

>> we have republican chairmans across the country sending out memos saying, we've got to start to reach out to hispanics and the african-american community, we've got to connect with young people . and here you have their immediate former candidate talking to the big dollar donors, people that gave them $900 million, and saying, nothing, our ideas are great. we just got outbribed. that's ridiculous.

>> john nichols , great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay right with us.

>> in my own personal experience, it was very important for me to elect young women and encourage people to come. and when they come here, to give them opportunity to serve.

>> 2012 is the year of the woman in congress. tonight, north dakota 's first female senator heidi hitekamp joins me exclusively.

>>> does barack obama now have a mandate?

>> i don't think so, because they also re-elected the house republicans.

>> the mandate deniers are living in a bubble. we'll lay out the facts.

>>> and eight days after getting thumped at the polls, ohio republicans are already trying to defund planned parenthood . state senator knnina turner is here tonight