Today at the GOP Governors' meeting in Miami

PAWLENTY CALLS FOR A MORE DIVERSE GOP:

It needs to get younger, more diverse and build a broader coalition, he said here at the Republican Governors Association conference a little more than a week after Republicans lost the presidency and suffered big losses in both the US House and Senate.

"If we're going to successfully travel the road, as a Republican, we need to see clearly, and be honest about where we've been and where we're headed," he said.

Pawlenty implored the room of Republicans not to give in to the emerging reform-versus-traditional arguments as to what's wrong with the party.

"If we're going to be the majority," he said, "we're going to have to see we need to grow the party. We cannot compete in the Northeast, the West; we're losing seats in the Great Lakes region. We have a large deficit with women, Hispanics, African Americans -- people with modest financial circumstances. That is not a formula for a majority."

Pawlenty stressed that the Party both needs to modernize and be true to its values. "Both are true, and both can be harmonized."

How?

Pawlenty said the party's values and principles are "time tested." "We can build on them. We can be both conservative and modern at the same time."

Pawlenty went on to emphasize fiscal policy (particularly on reducing debt), health care, education, and energy.

On the latter, he delivered a line that might sound like an opening 2012 shot at Palin. "'Drill baby, drill' by itself is not an energy policy," he said. "It's not enough. We're going to need wind and solar and bio mass."

That got a round of applause.

He added that the party couldn't be "co-conspirators" with big business and big unions, adding that the party had to reconnect with average working people and could no longer be viewed as a party of the rich.

Pawlenty has often talked about Sam's Club Republicanism -- the need to connect with Sam's Club shoppers instead of being perceived as the party of the Country Club. He expanded that to include K-Mart and Costco, people of "moderate means" and "small-business owners."

He also said the party needed to move beyond Ronald Reagan. "We all grew up in the age of Reagan," he said. "I passed out fliers for him; I got spat on by hippies. But he was president a long time ago."

He said Republicans needed to start confronting issues like health care, energy, and education. "Don't talk about it (health care)?" he said, referring to Republican candidates' aversion to addressing the issue. "It's one of the most pressing needs for our country."

Pawlenty kept it light, peppering jokes and self-deprecating humor through his speech in order to get across his message -- a little Minnesota nice with some tough medicine.

"We're going to have our differences," he said. "But in places like the Northeast and Minnesota and out West, there aren't enough Republicans to throw people overboard."

Gov. Bobby Jindal Talks About How the GOP Can Win in 2012 - click here for video:

Here is video of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal talking with NBC's David Schuster about what the Republican Party needs to do to win again in 2012. Jindal is a very impressive person. He needs to continue to raise his profile nationally with appearances like this and policy speeches over the next two years if he wants to run for the GOP nomination.

NOTE: The video begins with a lead-in about what Sarah Palin has said about why the GOP lost in 2008. Jindal follows immediately after.