Presidential Election Results 2012: Republican Infighting Over New Direction After Election Loss

After a big loss in the Electoral College, a failure to take back control of the Senate, and embarrassingly weak support among women and minorities, the Republican party is divided over its future and its direction.

The dust is settling from election night and Republican pundits are coming to terms with the magnitude of their loss.

A handful of wealthy Republican donors like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing conservative candidates, almost all of whom lost.

Voters repudiated the Republican stance on the economy, immigration, abortion, healthcare, taxes, gay marriage and drug policy in an election that saw the largest gender gap in history--18 points, record black and Latino turnout, and an overwhelming affinity for the Democrats from those groups.

The Republicans have several options to argue over, if they want to fight their way back to political relevance.

Demographics are not on their side, and the political power of the traditional Republican base-white men-is dwindling.

Some pundits are saying Romney wasn't conservative enough--that the party needs to stay true to its social-conservative values and rally support among the religious right.

That plan is likely dead in the water, as the number of non-Christians in the country is growing. Indeed, demographic shifts will make any narrowly-focused platform unworkable from now on.

Tea Partiers, the lawmakers who backed the party up to the fiscal cliff in the first place, are vowing to stand their ground.

They already proved they're willing to abandon all economically-sound policy when they caused the debt ceiling debacle, so they might be willing to let the country head over the cliff.

But that results in a default tax increase, so it would be a losing strategy.

But more moderate voices in the Republican party are calling for expanding the tent, appealing to many of the voters who supported Obama this year because they felt alienated by Republican positions.

George W. Bush tried to reform immigration policy in 2007 after carrying 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, but Republicans in Congress shot him down, so a move to the left on immigration could bring in many socially-conservative Latinos.

However, women won't be appeased unless the Republicans become a party solely of fiscal responsibility, eschewing government intrusion into social issues like abortion rights.

It remains to be seen whether Republicans can find a path out of the wilderness.