A little more than a week after a presidential election that saw their platform repudiated by a large portion of the country, Republicans are reflecting on their failure, and some are even admitting they were wrong.
"To say that I'm unhappy would be an understatement," said Harry Wilson, head of the polling center at Roanoke College in Virginia, speaking to National Public Radio.
Wilson had predicted a 5-point Romney win in Virginia. "I was drinking that Republican Kool-Aid," said Wilson.
"The Republican Party suffered reversals across the board. The party needs a new approach, said Craig Shirley, Republican advisor and Ronald Reagan biographer.
But some Republicans are doubling-down, blaming President Obama and Democrats for their losses. And one of the most prominent voices decrying the Democratic campaign is Mitt Romney.
"The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls, specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people," said Romney during a conference call on Wednesday. "In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups," said Romney on a conference call with campaign donors Wednesday.
"What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked," said Romney.
But many Republicans cringe at further alienating voters with such harsh words.
Republican governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal, who is Indian-American, denounced Romney's comments.
"No, I think that's absolutely wrong," said Jindal. "Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote."
"And, secondly," Jindal continued, "we need to continue to show how our policies help every voter out there achieve the American dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an opportunity to be able to get a great education. So, I absolutely reject that notion, that description. I think that's absolutely wrong."