The Republican Party, still grappling with last week's election results, should position itself as a pragmatic problem-solver for working people, GOP governors meeting in Miami said Wednesday.

Without unequivocally stating that the party should move to the ideological center to appeal to moderate voters, leaders at the two-day Republican Governors Association meeting urged their colleagues to tackle education, energy and the environment to broaden the party's base.

Largely absent from their discussions at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami: hot-button social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, which are seen by some party members as divisive.

Women, Hispanics and young voters flocked to Democrats on Election Day, and with a Democratic-controlled White House and Congress, it will fall on GOP state leaders to win those groups back, governors said.

''We need to reach out more as a party,'' said Gov. Charlie Crist, hosting the annual conference after Florida went blue in the presidential race and as the state faces a severe budget crunch.

Still, Crist promoted Florida as a ''model of success'' in dealing with taxes, environmental issues and a large, diverse electorate, even if the state went for Barack Obama.

Jim Greer, head of the state GOP, said he was proud that Florida Republicans maintained their significant majority in the state Legislature and had a net loss of only one congressional seat out of several competitive races.

''We won every Republican race except for the presidential race,'' Greer said. ``Compared to what happened in other states, Florida did very well.

``In the presidential race, we were swimming up a stream that had a current that just overcame us.''

While governors avoided placing blame on how the presidential race was lost, conservative analysts at the meeting pointed to a more technologically savvy Democratic campaign and to the Bush administration's unpopular handling of the war in Iraq, the economy and Hurricane Katrina.

''You cannot mess up that much and expect to get reelected,'' said Byron York, who writes for the conservative National Review magazine.

York argued that the party should not have nominated John McCain, who he said had ''thumbed his nose'' at some of the party's base. But on other panels Wednesday, some Republicans said the Arizona senator was the best person to take on Obama.

''He was the only Republican who could have come as close as he did,'' said Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who worked on Mitt Romney's presidential bid before moving to the McCain camp.

Speakers also shied away from placing blame on Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee, who is scheduled to address the conference Thursday. She talked to reporters Wednesday about looking forward to being back in Alaska -- and about losing the Hispanic vote to Obama.

''That was unfortunate,'' Palin said. ``That was a very, very important constituency that wasn't quite grasped, I think.''

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour warned governors to work in their states before thinking about running for higher office in four years.

''Anybody here tonight who's talking about the 2012 presidential election needs to get their eye on the ball,'' he said. ``We don't need any talk of 2012.''

He said afterward that he was not directing his comments at Palin but at the news media.

Looking to the future, Crist and other GOP stars like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Republicans should stick to their principles of smaller government and less spending, but also propose more-pragmatic solutions to appeal to what Pawlenty called ``Sam's Club voters.''

'Our bumper-sticker message can't be, `Vote Republican because the other side is worse,' ''Jindal said.

Added Pawlenty, once considered a possible McCain running mate: ' `Drill, baby, drill,' by itself, is not an energy policy. We need that, but we need a lot more than that.''

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