MIAMI (AFP) — A crowded field of Republican governors, many with an eye toward a run for the White House in 2012, gathered here Thursday for meetings to debate how best to move their party forward one week after a Democratic drubbing in national elections.
The annual governors' gathering, which goes through Friday, was marked Wednesday by the appearance of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, fresh from being Senator John McCain's defeated vice-presidential candidate.
A rock star for the party's social conservative wing and possible 2012 presidential candidate, Palin is scheduled to speak Thursday on how her party can recover from losing big in the polls on November 4.
The Republicans lost the White House as well as at least six Senate seats -- four races have yet to be determined -- and at least 20 seats in the House of Representatives, with five still to be determined.
Palin, who has granted several high-profile interviews since McCain's defeat -- after being notoriously media shy while on the campaign trail -- told AFP that she feels "very optimistic."
"This is an historic moment for the country, the Americans will be all together -- Democrats and Republicans -- working behind the new president and looking for progress," she said.
Palin however faces competition for the limelight from other young Republican stars, including governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Charlie Crist of Florida. All three were mentioned as possible McCain VP choices before he plucked Palin from Alaska.
Jindal, the socially conservative 37 year-old son of Punjabi immigrants, offered no excuses for last week's Republican defeat.
"The Obama's campaign was an amazing campaign on the ground. We should not complain on that, we should learn from that," Jindal said in his presentation Wednesday.
Crist in turn said that the Republican Party "needs to be the party of integration, have more support within the African-American community and regain the essential Hispanic vote."
Some argue the Republicans have alienated Hispanic voters over the staunch anti-immigrant stance of the party's core.
Republican strategist and pollster Frank Luntz said that his party decidedly lost the battle in the news media to the Democrats, especially on the Internet.
"Republicans may have talk radio, but the Democrats had the Internet," Luntz said. "The Internet is now the most efective tool to transmit our message."
According to his data 64 percent of voters received political information via the Internet and 46 percent via cable TV, both more consulted than any other type of news media.
Just as worrisome for Luntz is that young voters are increasingly voting Democratic.
"The loss of the young Republicans is one of the main problem we face," Luntz said. "We got only 32 percent of the youth vote, the lowest margin in history."
For Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a former Republican Party chairman, the key is to learn from past mistakes.
"Our problem now is not analyze the McCain campaign, our problem is to see what happened in the last years and try to learn from our many mistakes," he said.
Barbour, speaking later on MSNBC, said more important than planning for the 2012 presidential campaign is preparing for the Congressional and gubernatorial races in the 2010 mid-term elections.
Since the presidential campaign ended Palin has been a constant presence in the media, fielding nearly as many interviews in the last week as she granted during her entire run on the Republican presidential ticket.
Immediately following the defeat she told CNN television: "Right now, I cannot even imagine running for national office in 2012."
Five days later she told Fox news she hoped God would "show her the way" before she decides on a future bid for the White House.
"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is," she said.
In the interviews Palin has presented herself as a key Republican player, candidly assessing the party's defeat and laying much of the blame on president Bush.
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