Sean hannity. I think its probably unwitting on his part but if you want to know and understand the psyche and the mood and the Strategic Thinking thats guiding the Republican Party at any given moment well hannity is just an unusually good barometer of that. To me thats what makes him unique. They have all their own quirks and hes first and foremost a Republican Party man and wants the democrats to look bad and lose. Hes more than happy to completely reverse himself or totally ignore past pronouncement of principle if it serves that underlying agenda. The contortions this requires can be absurd but if you pay close enough attention can be very revealing. Because what hes really doing is expressing the message, the strategy thats gaining favor or thats in favor at that moment among republicans. Case in point, the debate over immigration. In the immediate wake of last novembers election, its an election that republicans like hannity were absolutely convinced they were going to win right up the polls closed hannity dramatically announced he had evolved on immigration. Weve got to get rid of the immigration issue altogether. Its simple for me to fix it. I think you control the border first. You create a pathway and that is a position ive evolved on. Because you know what, it just its got to be resolved, the majority of people here, if some people have criminal records are here, law abiding, participating four years their kids are born here, you know, its first secure the border, pathway to citizenship done, you know, whatever little penalties you want to put in there then its done. And the incentive for him to say that was obvious, surprise defeat of mitt romney. Chalked up initially by republicans and just everybody else to a record high turnout of nonwhite voters. Nothing for them to get shellacked but the results pointed to a different problem for the gop. Latinos rapidly growing group had given president obama more than 70 of their votes. The urgency for the gop to change its tune seemed obvious. That was eight months ago. But since then a bipartisan bill has passed the senate that would basically achieve everything hannity said he wanted to achieve, 30 billion in border security, the border surge, a 1year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with clean records with a series of fine and penalties. It passed the senate by a 68342 vote late last month but now theres grave doubt anything like it or anything at all will make its way out of the republicancontrolled house and why . The Strategic Thinking in the Republican Party seems to be changing. And who better to express that changing thinking than sean hannity. Not only do i doubt that the current legislation will solve the immigration problem, he wrote recently, but it also wont help the gop in future elections. So hannity has evolved again, it would seem. Just getting rid of the immigration issue is no longer the top of his agenda. This mirrors a broader trend among republicans as benji docume documented. A growing sentiment that the gop doesnt need to do any speck outreach. The challenge republicans face Going Forward isnt how to appeal to more nonwhite voters but win over and turn out even more white voters. Two beliefs seem to be driving this. One is that latinos are a liberal leaning voting bloc to start with for all sorts of reasons having nothing to do with immigration largely out of reach for the Republican Party. By this logic republicans see Immigration Reform as an electoral threat, something that will simply add millions of more democratic voters to the rolls. Second belief there is a large untapped poll of white voters out there. There was a marked decline in white Voter Participation between 2008 and 2012. 5 million white voters showed up in 2008 did not turn out last year. Consider that mitt romney took 59 of the white vote overall. If those extra white voters had shown up could have made the race a lot closer. If a future republican candidate could turn those white voters out and build on that 59 share romney got, well, then maybe the gop could still win without broadening its ethnic base that raises all sorts of troubling issues. Only getting more diverse as a society. What would happen if the fault line between our two major parties bail race. One became the party of white people and the other of nonwhites. Is that even possible it could happen . Is that what republicans like hannity, republicans who are suddenly saying, hey, you know, we dont have incentive to do Immigration Reform after all . Is that what they want to happen. I want to bring in shawn trendy, msnbc contributor maria these ka kumar and dino garza for the Hispanic Group and dave weigel, senior Political Correspondent at slate. Com. And shawn, well start with you because you made a big contribution to this discussion, maybe even got this discussion started recently with a series you wrote at real clear politics, if people havent read it, i would encourage them to look at why. Why they shouldnt con sen tate but being the party of white people. Can you take us through the logic behind how that would work. I do think up front it is important to make the distinction you did. What should the gop do versus what wins elections and if you look at the demographics of 2012 as you pointed out, you know, the latino share of the electorate basically keeps pace with population growth same what the africanamerican growth but a marked decline of the number of whites who turned out. We are talking about the gop base, this gop base strategy is completely not the way to get these voters to turn out. Its White Working Class somewhat rural voters in the north kind of perot voters turned off by both candidates in 2012 these are older voters, if theyre perot voters theyve been around for awhile. A lot, its been interpreted by people on the right. Limbaughs and hannitys saying this is further proof the Republican Party isnt conservative enough. We think of the Republican Party, think of the south and should be more southern friendly but youre saying, no, look in other state. Thats right, exact opposite of what limbaugh and people are saying, as a matter of fact, were talking about voters in kind of southeastern ohio, voters in western wisconsin, places where, you know, the gop southern message doesnt necessarily play particularly well where the gop probably has to liberalize its economic message or at least change its pitch from what mitt romney was trying to sell. So when you hear this kind of discussion, im curious, what do you think about where the Republican Party needs to be looking. The Republican Party have to have a vision and vision means long term. My observation has been everybody who has any nast aspiration, rubio, gin daal, you name it has come out for immigration and a path to citizenship. The gop has come out for a path to citizenship. Anybody with National Aspirations has come out for a path to citizenship. The folks who have not who resisted a little more are ones at the local level who fear being primary. Theyre trying to do the best of a difficult situation. I mean it seeps its a little more than a local national divide. I can think of to me like a ted cruz has national ambition. Listen to what ted is saying. He wants to expand Legal Immigration and double the number of folks coming legally. He has asked to actually increase the number of visa opportunities into america five times what it is today so hes not against Immigration Reform. I guess it depends how you define it. Is it a path to citizenship or learn from the lessons of the past and fix right. Lets talk in a little bit and have a little time for this a little more about how specifically immigration fits into this discussion but sort of more on this, have you noticed what were talking about in the opening here. Has the conversation shifted in the Republican Party about the urgency of appealing to nonwhite voters and latinos in particular over the last eight months . It has to a certain extent but coming from the political pundits. I dont see it coming from the actual leadership itself. What were seeing is a fear maybe that Immigration Reform has gotten out of control. Talking about the base who may become more strident. There is an openness on part of the party itself to engage in the issue of Immigration Reform and welcomed it. When you step back. Sean, what youre describing is identifying for a populist candidate to overtake the Republican Party. Plus taking a step back this is the party of the Koch Brothers. They wont let a populist candidate come in and overtake the party and just like theyre not going to win the latino vote overnight i dont see a populist candidate coming overnight and winning this swath of the Republican Party. Yes, ted cruz is quite popular in texas but also one of the worst performing state when is it comes to latino participation. They have 2. 3 million latinos n unregistered for voters. Its not in the interest of the Republican Party to look at this and say we need more white voters. Its not just white voters theyre turning off a whole swath of white female voters with their agenda and have to start looking at not just how do you start wooing the disaffected white voter but changing your policies and brand so, yes, you may be able to win the next congressional race but what will you do six, seven years when the demographics respect on your side or are your policies. I want to pick up on this and talked about the demographic changes so want to talk about how long that process is going to take to play out and how it will open and get to that to a second. First the latest on the crash of that boeing 777 in San Francisco yesterday. It killed at least 2 people. Asiana flight 214 crashed and at a press conference the two fatalities were Chinese Women born in 1996 and 1997 whose seats were at the back of the plane. For the latest to Miguel Almaguer outside San FranciscoGeneral Hospital where some of the passengers were taken. What is the latest out there. Reporter 182 passengers were treated at low bay area hospitals. Some of the most seriously injured treat at San FranciscoGeneral Hospital. They saw some 53 patients, half of them were children. We know that this morning six patients remain in Critical Condition including one child. Were told so many patients were arriving at this hospital they came in four different waves. That was a similar scene at bay area hospitals across this region. Some of the injured had some broken bones, internal bleeding and some had some burn, were told that many of the victims when they arrived here were certainly shocked and it took some time for them to realize what was going on, again, six patients remain in Critical Condition here at San FranciscoGeneral Hospital. Of those six patients one is a small child. There are other patients recovering at other bay area hospitals. Certainly going to be a long couple of days for those survivors who are bruised and beaten, back to you. All right, nbcs Miguel Almaguer reporting from San Francisco. Thanks for that. Well get back to this conversation about the public party and its identity crisis. Thats after this. girl yeah, right. guy i wannna catch a falcon girl we should do that. guy i caught a falcon. guy you could eat a bug. Lets do that. guy you know youre eating a bug. girl because of the legs. guy vo we got a subaru to take us new places. girl yeah, its a hot spring. guy we should do that. guy vo it did. man hows that feel . guy fine. girl we shouldnt have done that. guy no. announcer love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. New Clean Whipped Creme Foundation from covergirl. A delicious new recipe whipped up by clean makeup. They took their clean fresh foundation, added a dash of hydration, then whipped it to smooth matte perfection. Finally, a nondrying whip that wears like a dream what a treat from clean. New clean whipped creme from easy breezy beautiful covergirl. New clean whipped creme wellso ready. 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This has been a modern story dropping every president ial election from 77 in 04 to 72 this fall. How did those white voters vote . George w. Bush winning reelection. 58 of the white vote so mitt romney losing, you know, by what 4. 5 million votes last year compared to bush winning in 04. Romney improved his showing among white voters but because the share of the electorate dropped that didnt translate into victory. Sorry im losing my voice but what do you make of this conversation taking place about how to balance the need to outreach or whether theres a need to outreach . Youre right hannity is a good sounding wood board for this. The electorate theyd like to have. One i talked to said barack obama is basically stunt casting. Theyre not going to have another charismatic biracial candidate until somebody weve never heard of takes the nomination. When they make fun of Hillary Clinton of being a golden girl thats part of the message youll have another white candidate going and if those numbers tick at all, then ohio is harder for you to win because i think ohio you get obama winning 40 of the white vote. Something that the democrats didnt think they could win with. He wins by bringing out black voters, hauck income, vass, they think they changed the map that way. Theyre pretty hardnosed about how they can hold a house too and theyre right. If every district that had less than more than 25 hispanic votes that republicans hold now if they lost although theyd have the house. Now, they gerrymandered in a way so they have mostly white strongholds, low minority populations where they can make it and the places where they do have a high minority population mike maria was saying were participation in the electorate is not that high. Interesting thing we talk about in terms of president ial elections but you were talking about you see a national and more local split. I think that local split is maybe embodied in the house and look at the House Republicans. The open question whether immigration will pass the house. Well, as dave is saying no incentive for any house member to be thinking about latino voters and worried about these largely white districts. Does that become or has that already become selfreinforcing where you get 2014, we talked in the show about the disparity between president ial turn out and midterm turn out. If all these Republican Congressmen ignoring latino voters get reelected in 2014 and a foo more get in there does this reinforce the thinking theyve been embarking on . Look, if people are looking at just the president ial election and hispanic thats shortsighted too. Myopic. I think maria made a good point about texas. Like the state of arizona where you have Barbara Cook Patrick and cinema, one within four percentage points, immigration is going to matter and how you outreach and engage the Hispanic Community in states like that is also going to make the difference whether you get to win in congressional districts, as well. Its not just about a National Race but at the local race, as well where i think immigration will play a huge role. Thats right. What daniel is saying, what youre refer to, sure, the Republican Party can sit tight and go after congressional races, theyll be fine but where are those congressional kates that won statewide office or run for stat. Forget the presidency because of the massive demographic shifts not just in the Latino Community, africanamerican, asian and young white women they have to make sure theyre changing their brand in order for them statewide office, not just the gerrymander districts but who among those house representatives in the gerrymander distributes have the affinity of wanting to and, sean, maybe you could speak to this. Is there in some states i see how thats the case for republicans and already is the case in some states where there is a growing latino population, for instance and republicans have to be sensitive of th