Republican strategist and NBC Latino contributor Danny Vargas says while Limbaugh “is just an entertainer,” offensive comments from some in the GOP did contribute to a profound loss in November.  ”We lost because the perception the public had of us was that we were intolerant and insensitive, and perception is reality,” Vargas says.  ”Now after the election, I have people asking me at the county, state and federal level, how do we re-engage with Latino voters?  How do we get it done?” he says.

But it all started in the summer, during the election campaign.  Republicans such as Jeb Bush or Latino Republicans like Juntos Con Romney co-chair Carlos Gutierrez warned about Republicans alienating Latino voters through harsh language or rhetoric -whether it was calling for electric fences on the border, comparing immigrants to dogs, or calling for voluntary deportation. And after Hispanics’ resounding support for Obama in the November elections, Mitt Romney’s comments that Obama won because of  ’gifts’ to Latinos and blacks was swiftly condemned by non-Latino and Latino Republicans.  A ‘slap in the face’ and ‘disturbing’ were among the phrases used at the time.

“It’s no secret, we had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments,” said Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal during the Republican National Committee winter meeting. ”I’m here to say, we’ve had enough of that.”

Fast forward a couple of months, and many feel like things have changed. “If you think that just 4 months back there was talk of self-deportation and Arizona being a model for the country — it’s incredible,” says Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), speaking about the emerging consensus on immigration reform, including Republican support for a pathway to citizenship.  Similarly, SEIU labor leader Eliseo Medina said he was pleased the debate on immigration reform “is on the merits of the plan, instead of on demonizing immigrants.”

Arizona State University political scientist Rodolfo Espino says the Republican “angst and teeth gnashing” is not unusual for the “out” party after an election. “We saw that when the Democrats were out of power; they had their struggles on some issues, including their position on the wars and how to fight the war on terror,” says Espino.

Now, says Espino, it is immigration which Republicans are debating.  ”At the leadership level, the GOP is signaling change has to take place,” Espino explains.

A few days ago, Arizona Senator John McCain was pretty blunt about the political repercussions of the GOP and immigration.

“The Republican Party has failed to understand to a significant degree the importance of this issue to our Hispanic voters,” McCain said recently.  In a state like his, he explained, this trend “means we will go from Republican to Democrat over time.”

Espino says McCain’s frank talk is not “crass,” as he has heard some people say.  ”As a political scientist, I applaud McCain for saying that politics is about winning,”says Espino.  ”And for Latinos who have been advocating for immigration reform,”  Espino says, “this is what many worked for, so it’s a good thing.”

And while Republicans who are trying to mend fences with Latino voters cannot control all voices in the party, the Hispanic Leadership Network did send a memo this week advising Republican legislators not to use terms like amnesty, anchor babies, self-deportation, and electric fences.

So what about the comments made by some in the Republican party, such as former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, who said Latinos will not vote Republican despite immigration legislation?

Both Vargas and Espino say Latino voting trends do not show a built-in permanent constituency of Democratic voters.

“I went from Democrat to Republican many years ago because I felt Republicans were the “grownup” party which would tackle the big problems, says Vargas. “Now, we have to fix our immigration system, which is not a Democratic or Latino problem, it’s an American problem, yet it has frankly kept us from having a dialogue with Hispanics” says Vargas.

“I had family members who loved Ronald Reagan in the 80s and intensely disliked Pete Wilson in the 90s,” says Espino. “Bush got almost 40 percent of the Latino vote,” he adds.

Yet what Espino thinks is the biggest example of how Latinos are ‘persuadable voters” is a Latino Decisions pre-election poll of Latino voters.  ”The question was would they consider voting for a Republican candidate if they supported immigration reform,” says Espino.  ”The state with the highest amount of Latinos saying they would was in Arizona – the birthplace of SB1070.”

“Action must follow – we can’t allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate,” said the president, who later said that now that there is a bipartisan foundation, if Congress does not put forth a bill, “I will send my bill so they vote on it right away,” Obama said.

Saying that immigration was in this country’s “bones” and the differences regarding reform seem to be dwindling, Obama said “a broad consensus is emerging.”

The president’s speech did not get into specifics, and he seemed to purposely avoid presenting his plan as an alternative to the Senate bipartisan proposal, instead praising what the senators proposed and saying they were similar. Obama said the main elements of the legislation should be enforcement, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers and updating the legal immigration system to allow more skilled workers and students to remain and work in the U.S.

Where the plans most differ, however, is that the Senate plan makes the gradual path to legalization and citizenship contingent on securing the  nation’s borders, something Obama does not do. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, one of the Senators who drafted the proposal, criticized Obama’s speech today for “his unwillingness to accept significant enforcement triggers before current undocumented immigrants can apply for a green card. Without such triggers in place,” said Rubio, “we will be back in just a few years dealing with millions of new undocumented people in our country.”

The Obama plan also allows same-sex couples the same rights to sponsor a partner for citizenship, as is the case with heterosexual couples.

Despite the differences in plans and the fact that more partisan differences will emerge in the coming days, Latino leaders in Nevada for the announcement today said recent developments bode well for those who advocate for reform.

“If you think that just 4 months back there was talk of self-deportation and Arizona being a model for the country — it’s incredible,” says Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

“I’m really pleased the debate on immigration reform is on the merits of the plan, instead of demonizing immigrants like in the past,” says Eliseo Medina, Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

And in a clear indication that Republicans are trying to steer clear of rhetoric perceived as anti-Latino, the center-right  Hispanic Leadership Network, issued a memo called “Suggested Messaging Dos and Don’ts of Immigration Reform” for Republican legislators yesterday. “Don’t use phrases like ‘send them all back,’ ‘electric fence,’ build a wall along the entire border,’” says the memo, also asking legislators to avoid the term ‘anchor baby’ or ‘amnesty.’

Jennifer Korn, the Hispanic Leadership Network‘s Executive Director, says ”it’s unfair to paint the whole Republican party as anti-immigration because a handful of conservatives used harsh language  in the past.” She says she believes there is support for reform among Republican legislators in the House and Senate.

“We are in a different environment post election, and conservatives are more willing to come out publicly to support immigration reform,” she says.

So now that Senate leaders and the President are on board about passing legislation by the summer, the issue turns to the House, traditionally less supportive of reform. Some House leaders like Florida Republican Mario Díaz-Balart are taking the lead on reform. ”If you have a car that is not running, you fix it — and that’s what we need to do with immigration reform,” said Díaz-Balart on MSNBC today.

Not everyone, however, is on board.  ”There are people in the House who would not mind being the ones to torpedo an immigration bill,” says Latino Decisions political scientist Sylvia Manzano.  They are, however, getting pressure from party leaders, says Manzano, who adds that after the election, Republicans do not want to continue being perceived as coming into immigration reform “kicking and screaming.”

Former Commerce Secretary and Juntos con Romney co-chair Carlos Gutierrez criticized the president for presenting a “competing” plan to the Senate’s proposal and “drawing lines in the sand.”  Gutierrez, who formed Republican for Immigration Reform, does support reform.

Partisan differences aside, reform advocates say what is crucial is to get consensus on the need to pass legislation, and they say President Obama needs to apply pressure to seal the deal.

“If we are going to get reform it’s not going to be the White House in one lane and Congress on the other lane; it’s extremely important that Obama works with Congress and sits down with leadership and continues to help broker a deal,” says NILC’s Marielena Hincapié.  ”It’s also important to continue making the case with the American people,” she says.

“Immigration reform isn’t a Latino issue, it’s an American issue,” says Maria Teresa Kumar, from Voto Latino.

“We are confident that it will pass as a bipartisan bill,” stated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rubén Hinojosa.

“We have firmly believed that fixing the broken immigration system is not just a Latino or immigrant priority but a priority for the American people, and we wanted to test that theory,” said Eliseo Medina, Secretary/Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) , one of the groups who commissioned the poll, along with the National Immigration Forum and America’s Voice, two organizations which support immigration reform.   “This poll exceeded all my expectations; I am amazed at the level of support,” Medina said.  The Latino labor leaders added the results clearly demonstrate that immigration reform is not the “third rail” for politicians but a net positive, as shown by the numbers of voters who supported Obama.  ”Voters are way ahead of Congress on this issue.”

Jeb Bush, Jr. the son of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a member of the National Immigration Forum Board, said this poll should help give “political cover” for Republicans in Congress to rally behind reform. “Now is the time for leaders to take cues from the public.”

The poll found 77 percent of Americans, including  76 percent of conservative Republicans, would support a 4-point reform plan consisting of increased border security, employer verification, an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and immigration levels based on worker needs.  Sixty four percent of those polled preferred to tackle border enforcement and a legal pathway for those who are here illegally at the same time, with only 31 percent say border security should come first.

“I think the pollsters went to great lengths to show the American public wants the issue of immigration resolved and off the table- it is not a Latino-specific issue,” says political scientist Sylvia Manzano.

The finding that almost nine out of 10 American favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who registering for legal status, learn English and pay taxes shows Americans are not “comfortable” with the idea of a permanent class of non-citizens, said the pollsters.  Strong support for earned citizenship could give a boost to Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s recent proposal, which includes a pathway for undocumented immigrants in which they would first earn a green card and then an eventual pathway to citizenship.

RELATED: Exclusive-Sen. Marco Rubio outlines his immigration reform plan

Many Republicans – even Senator Rubio in the past – have referred to a citizenship pathway for undocumented immigrants as “amnesty.”  Yet in this poll, 66 percent of Americans said immigration reform is about accountability – especially the part requiring payment of back taxes as a condition for legalization – and did not consider it amnesty.

Jeb Bush Jr. remarked today that these findings show Rubio’s proposal, which is also backed by other Republican leaders such as former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, is a huge opportunity for the Senator to lead his party.  ”It can provide a cover of fire for some members of Congress,” said Bush, Jr.

The results of the poll come at a time of high expectations among many Latinos who had expressed immigration reform as one of the top priorities during the presidential campaign. The Obama Administration and Democratic leaders have said reform is at the top of the agenda, but the question has been whether there would be enough Republican support to get legislation passed.

America’s Voice Frank Sharry said he and other reform advocates would take these poll findings to Congress.

Manzano says though many in the Republican party leadership have a pretty good sense of the long-term trajectory for the party and the need to tackle reform, these findings make pretty clear to those legislators on the fence how Americans stand on the need to rebuild the current immigration system.

Although President Obama is about to be inaugurated for a second term, “some GOP legislators might be thinking 2016,” says Manzano. “And the candidate who gets to say, ‘I helped take the immigration issue off the table’ will be in a much better position.”

Latino voters went to the polls with the economy on their minds, “but immigration reform in their hearts,” said National Council of La Raza (NCLR) CEO and President Janet Murguia.  She said she was heartened by the increasing support of not just Democratic and Republican legislators, but business leaders as well as religious leaders.  ”There is an economic, religious and moral case for immigration reform,” said Murguia.

Maria Teresa Kumar, of Voto Latino, said “the fact we came out in record numbers in 2012 is personal,” she said.  ”That’s a calculation members of Congress don’t understand,” added Kumar.  Hector Sanchez, of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLLA), said in English and Spanish that “12 million undocumented workers in the richest nation is not a mistake, it’s public policy.”  Chris Espinosa, director of national advocacy at the Hispanic Federation,  said “we have secured our borders, now it’s time to get the other elements of immigration reform.”

The group announced they will continue mobilizing naturalized Latinos to become citizens and vote, while they hold constant meetings on Capitol Hill with both sides of the aisle.  The Latino leaders said that with 150 new House members, part of the process will be to engage these new legislators on the issue.

The Latino leaders announced they will create a ‘report card’ at the end of 2013 rating every legislator and his or her’s voting and issues stance on immigration reform.  ”The report card will be bipartisan, pass-fail, and we hope President Obama aces his test; we expect him to,” said labor leader Eliseo Medina, president of the Service International Employees Union (SEIU).    On how they will ‘rate’ the legislators, Medina said “we are absolutely clear that words are one thing, actions are another,” adding “November 6th was not the end of our activism, it was the beginning.”

Brent Wilkes, from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said the effort to put pressure on immigration reform will include letter writing, Hill visits,  petitions, and actions in members’ districts and home states.  Max Sevilla, of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), said a recent Politico/George Washington University poll found 62 percent of Americans support the right of immigrants here in the U.S. to pursue a path to citizenship.

RELATED: Immigration reform is coming, but in small steps

Some analysts and legislators have said they find it hard to believe Congress will pass immigration reform in the coming year. But NCLR’s Janet Murguia said she sees a “real window of opportunity in 2013 – before Congress recesses in August of next year,” she said.  Murguia also said she was heartened by the fact that some Democrats and Republicans are stressing the importance of  making citizenship a key part of the reform. “It was encouraging to hear from a Hispanic Republican like Mario Diaz-Balart, who says he doesn’t believe anything less than citizenship is something he can support,” she says.

RELATED: Many proposals, but will they lead to immigration reform?

In the meantime, the group says the mobilization that succeeded in making the Latino vote a crucial voting block will do the same in pushing for immigration reform.

“We have proven we can do a great job,” said Ben Monterroso, from Mi Familia Vota.

On election night, the newly re-elected President Obama said fixing our immigration system was a priority.  Today, Republican House Speaker John Boehner  was asked about immigration reform.  Boehner said that while he was not going to get into the details, “it is time to get the job done.”

Illinois Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez, who has championed reform and ‘Dreamer’ legislation, says Congress should move quickly on immigration reform for two reasons.  ”One, we deport one thousand people per day, and every day that passes means more families destroyed,” as well as more money and law-enforcement hours wasted.  Secondly, Congressman Gutierrez adds, “the mass deportation approach and the self-deportation approach are dead politically – the funeral was on Election Night.”

New Jersey Democratic congressman Robert Menendez says he is looking forward “to working with the President and my colleagues in the 113th Congress – including newly elected members who are Latino – to work on  policies that matter to the country’s Hispanic community.”

But Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says that while she and fellow Latino Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart favor immigration reform, the reality is that many in her party are not eager to vote for the kind of sweeping, comprehensive reform which addresses the over 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country.  ”While Speaker Boehner is more receptive to bipartisan support on this, I don’t think he is representative of the majority of our Caucus,” Ros-Lehtinen acknowledges.  In her opinion, the new House of Representatives coming in January is slightly more polarized. ” Our Republican makeup is less moderate, and   more conservative, and the Democratic House makeup is less conservative and more liberal,” Ros-Lehtinen says.

“I think we will do immigration reform bit by bit –  maybe not as big of a package as some immigration advocates want, but maybe some piecemeal Dream Act,” the Congresswoman says. “I don’t know how many people will be helped, or how broad it will be,” she adds.

Israel Ortega, from the conservative Heritage Libertad Foundation, thinks the Senate will take the lead, and then the issue is to work on something “palatable” to the Republican-led House. Like Ros-Lehtinen, Ortega foresees Congress passing easier immigration-related legislation first. “Perhaps they will pass legislation to make the visa process more efficient, or something focusing on the Dreamers,” Ortega says.

But DNC Advisor Juan Sepulveda says the Administration as well as immigrant reform-friendly legislators might have the support of what he calls “unexpected allies – the business and agricultural community, who were  already quietly coming on board, and now see there is a stronger starting position for pushing for immigration reform,” says Sepulveda.  Studies have shown the business and agricultural communities in states like Alabama have lost money after restrictive immigration-related policies have been put into place.

Cecilia Muñoz, White House Domestic Policy Council Advisor and a former immigrants rights advocate, said in a speech this spring that “it is hard to overstate what the Republicans’ unwillingness to engage on this issue has cost the country – it has undoubtedly cost us jobs,” Muñoz said.  She also added, though, that “we face a simple fact: no immigration bill has passed the U.S. Congress in at least a generation  and possibly ever – without bipartisan support.”

And while legislation to speed up efficiency in visa applications, or a policy for legalizing Dreamers would be welcomed by Latino immigration rights advocates, the reality is most Latinos and non-Latinos polled support comprehensive immigration reform.

“We expect action and leadership on comprehensive immigration reform; to both sides, no more excuses, we want action,” said Latino labor leader Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union, following President Obama’s re-election.

“For Latinos, 60 percent of whom know someone who is undocumented,” says Clarissa Martinez De Castro of the National Council of La Raza, “this is personal.”

“Last night Latinos confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House goes through Hispanic neighborhoods,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).  ”The Latino giant is wide awake, cranky and is taking names,” said labor leader Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Yesterday’s Latino vote made history in two ways.  Over 12 million Latinos came out to vote, according to preliminary numbers, and for all the handwringing about whether Latinos would have the enthusiasm or numbers to vote, this is a 22 percent increase from 2008.  Just over 10 percent of the nation’s voters were Hispanic.

Moreover, President Obama received 75 percent of the Latino vote, according to impreMedia/Latino Decisions exit polls, thus obtaining the highest number of Latino voters; President Clinton received about 72 percent in 1996.

These numbers translated to a “watershed moment,” in the words of Latino Decisions co-principal and Stanford University political scientist Gary Segura.  For the first time in history, Segura explained, the Latino vote can plausibly claim to be nationally decisive in the presidential election.   Latinos gave a 5.3 percent bump to President Obama, according to Latino Decisions’ numbers.  This was crucial in battleground states with close margins between Obama and Romney.

Had Latinos been more evenly divided, those states like Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Nevada might have flipped to Romney, Segura explained.   Not only did Latinos play a crucial role in sending Obama back to the White House, but they also were a decisive factor in key Senate races.   In New Mexico, Democrat Martin Heinrich joins Colorado’s Michael Bennet and Nevada’s Harry Reid “to directly owing his seat to the Latino vote,” said Segura, since almost 40 percent of the turnout were Latino voters.

So how does this historic Latino vote impact the policies and legislation coming out of the White House and Congress?  Latinos point out Obama’s victory is clearly a result of Latino voter support on key issues and policies.

President Obama won Latino support ‘the old-fashioned way,’ said SEIU’s Eliseo Medina – by supporting immigration reform, health care legislation and education initiatives, which resonated with Latino voters, according to the latest impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll.  Sixty six percent of registered Hispanic voters believe the federal government should ensure access to health care, and 61 percent support keeping the Affordable Care Act.  Only one out of four Latinos thought people should provide their own health insurance.  On how to reduce the deficit, more than four out of ten Hispanics believe you need a combination of spending cuts and tax increases; only 12 percent of Latinos advocate spending cuts without higher taxes.

Immigration was second to the economy as a top issue for Latino voters.  Recently Rudy Lopez, national political director of the Campaign for Community Change, who worked with grassroots groups who registered hundreds of thousands of new Latino voters, said immigration reform was the “connective tissue”which galvanized many Latino voters.

Today, Latino leaders minced no words.   “For Latinos, 60 percent of whom know someone who is undocumented, this is personal – we are ready for solutions,” says NCLR’s Clarissa Martinez De Castro, who added “the current environment is ripe for reform.”

Just like yesterday’s vote was a clear endorsement of Democratic policy stances, many say it is a time for Republicans to reassess their message and their tones to the growing Hispanic electorate.

On Hispanics’ clear repudiation of Republican stances on immigration issues, political scientist Gary Segura said it pretty clearly.  ”Republicans need to make this go away – or it will be a persistent electoral Gollum for them.” In fact, Segura says, their numbers show Mitt Romney forfeited just under 2 percent of the popular vote,  when one compares polls of Latinos’ strong disapproval of Romney’s immigration views and the lower number of votes he received from Hispanics, especially compared to other Republican presidents like George W. Bush.

“In my opinion, there is a big, flashing warning sign for Republicans that they are headed for a cliff,” says SEIU’s Medina. “If Republicans want to be a viable party, they need to do right with Latinos,” he said.

In the end, though, legislation requires action from both parties.  Here, leaders are banking on the possibility that Latinos’ increasing political clout helps propel lawmakers to roll up their sleeves.

“Latino voters are a permanent part of the political equation,” said NCLR’s Martinez De Castro.  She said she is hoping Latinos’ desire for common sense legislation helps “rebuild the political space” to provide solutions,  in what has been a pretty divisive time in Washington.