WASHINGTON - A new Republican generation is trying out its voice at the pinnacle of US politics, nurturing a party rebranding effort that is smoothing the hard edged conservatism advanced by defeated Mitt Romney.Emerging figures like Florida Senator Marco Rubio and defeated vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan are already working through the lessons of Democratic President Barack Obama's election win with an eye on 2016."Losing is part of politics, and can often prepare the way for the greatest victories," Ryan said last week, as he and Rubio began to figure out how to stay faithful to authentic conservatism while engaging a wider audience.Both men appear determined to shake off the image projected by Romney, the multi-millionaire Republican candidate caught condemning 47 percent of Americans as victims dependent on state handouts.Rubio, a favorite of the ultra-conservative Tea Party faction, and congressman Ryan who framed Republican budgets that would curtail the role of government, have authentic claims for the affections of pure conservatives.Now, they are positioning themselves as more sympathetic figures than Romney and the ideologues who dominate their party nominating process, in an echo of the "compassionate" conservatism pushed by George W. Bush in 2000.Each is seen as a serious prospect as Republicans size up 2016 hopefuls, and if older candidates, like Jeb Bush, give the race a pass, would be the first of the post-baby boomer generation to carry their party in a White House race.Ryan and Rubio both appear to have concluded that the tough anti-government rhetoric employed by Romney jarred with the times, when many people in post-recession America rely on some help from the state.Paul Kengor, a scholar of former Republican president Ronald Reagan, argued that America did not reject conservatism as a philosophy in November, but that Republicans lacked a charismatic spokesman to vast numbers of Americans."Reagan did this with a sunny optimism and an ability to connect with Americans at a personal and human level (with) the touch of the common man. "I think that Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan are both fully capable of that," said Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College, a Christian liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania.No one knows who filmed Romney's explosive remarks on the 47 percent at a private fundraiser, but a member of the catering staff is suspected.So it was ironic that Rubio highlighted the toil of kitchen workers last week as he tried to strike a new note for conservatism - reaching out to aspirational Americans not yet considered middle class."All they want is a chance to earn a better life for themselves and a better future for their children. Whether they get that chance or not, will determine whether America remains exceptional or declines," he said."It all starts with our people. In the kitchens of our hotels. In the landscaping crews that work in our neighborhoods. In the late night janitorial shifts that clean our offices."Rubio, 41, the son of Cuban immigrants, also seems to recognize that the party's tough rhetoric on illegal immigrants in 2012 was incompatible with winning over Hispanic voters who went overwhelmingly for Obama. "When you are talking about illegal immigration, you are not talking about a plague of locusts, you are talking about people," Rubio said at a forum organized by the Politico news organization last week.While the wealthy Romney was easy for Obama to demonize as a "vulture" capitalist, Rubio stresses humbler origins, noting he has only just paid off the student loans which sent him to university and law school.Ryan, 42, despite coming from a family that owned a construction business, also trades on blue collar credentials and like Rubio, is tracking away from Romney's image, despite running with him on the 2012 Republican ticket."Both parties tend to divide Americans into 'our voters' and 'their voters'" Ryan said at a dinner honoring the late conservative hero and former congressman Jack Kemp dinner last week."Republicans must steer far clear of that trap. We must speak to the aspirations and anxieties of every American," Ryan said.Like Rubio, Ryan is reaching out to working class voters who aspire to higher things."I believe we can turn the engines of upward mobility back on, so that no one is left out from the promise of America," he said.Ryan, despite being seen by liberals as an enemy of social programs, has also been talking about the need to help the poor, even using government to do so."We have a compassionate vision based on ideas that work - but sometimes we don't do a good job of laying out that vision. We need to do better," he said.