Republican governors go back to the drawing board

The setting was a gloomy meeting of the Republican Governors Assn., which drew 17 of the party's state executives. Not incidentally, it also served as an early audition for the 2012 election, just about 1,450 days away.

Half a dozen or so White House prospects, led by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, circulated at a luxury hotel alongside choppy Biscayne Bay, giving interviews, shaking hands, delivering speeches and offering varied analyses on the meaning of last week's election.

In one camp were the likes of Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor and longtime GOP strategist, who recalled the Republican renaissance that followed Watergate, then Bill Clinton's 1992 election.

"I have seen a lot worse, folks," Barbour told an audience of about 150 governors, political aides and party benefactors. "I actually think McCain got a tremendous vote."

By this accounting, the GOP's biggest problems on Nov. 4 were the dead weight of a prolonged war, an unpopular president and an economic crisis exploding weeks before election day. (A few blamed the messenger. "In terms of delivery, Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain," strategist Frank Luntz said.)

Others, however, see a much graver problem. They say the party has failed to change with technology, allowing Democrats to rule the Internet; has betrayed core principles such as fiscal prudence; and has lost its standing with a frightening number of voter groups.

"The Republican Party's going to need more than a comb-over," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told reporters after Barbour spoke.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. agreed. "I'm not one who buys the idea that it's just an aberration," he said.

There were other differences, which are likely to shape the eventual fight for the Republican nomination.

During Wednesday's opening lunch, Pawlenty -- a finalist to join McCain on the GOP ticket -- dismissed one of Palin's signature lines by calling for an expansive approach to energy development.

" 'Drill, baby, drill,' is not, by itself, an energy policy," Pawlenty said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaking to reporters, cited the passage of measures banning same-sex marriage in California, Arizona and Florida as proof "that conservative values still matter to the American people."