Boston – After Defeat, Cloudy Future Ahead For Mitt Romney

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    US Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney leaves the podium after delivering his concession speech at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for the 2012 US presidential election in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 06 November 2012.EPA/RICK WILKING/POOLBoston – Mitt Romney spent the past six years running for president. After his loss to President Barack Obama, he’ll have to chart a different course.

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    His initial plan: spend time with his family. He has five sons and 18 grandchildren, with a 19th on the way.

    “I don’t look at postelection to be a time of regrouping. Instead it’s a time of forward focus,” Romney told reporters aboard his plane Tuesday evening as he returned to Boston after the final campaign stop of his political career. “I have, of course, a family and life important to me, win or lose.”

    The most visible member of that family — wife Ann Romney — says neither she nor her husband will seek political office again.

    “Absolutely he will not run again,” she told the hosts of ABC’s “The View” in October when asked if a loss would mean the end of Romney’s political career. “Nor will I.”

    Romney’s senior advisers refused to speculate publicly about what might be next for their longtime boss. There was a general consensus, however: The 65-year-old Romney is unlikely to retire altogether. But following his defeat, his future role in a divided Republican Party is unclear.

    “He’s not a guy who’s going to stay still, right. He’s not a guy that’s just going to hit a beach, play a lot of golf. He’ll do something,” said Russ Schriefer, one of Romney’s top strategists.

    The Republican presidential nominee spent most of his career in private business. He’s run for office four times, and lost all but his bid for Massachusetts governor in 2002. That year, he ran as a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and struck a conciliatory tone on gay rights and climate change. He also ran for the Senate.

    After he decided to run for president, some of those positions changed. In his two presidential campaigns, he ran as an opponent of abortion, advocated amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage and described himself as “severely conservative.”

    But the Republican Party’s most passionate voters never fully embraced him. Romney struggled through a long and nasty primary, losing state contests to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, both of whom had long been sitting on their party’s sidelines.

    It wasn’t immediately clear if Romney will seek an ongoing role in a Republican Party that’s embarking upon a period of soul-searching. With a successful career in the private sector, he could secure a position in private business, though he is worth millions and hasn’t worked a job with a regular paycheck in more than a decade. Those close to Romney also suggest he could purse philanthropic opportunities or even play a role in the Olympics after having led the 2002 Winter Games.

    Frustrated conservatives may make a full return to politics by Romney, even in a supporting role, difficult on the national stage.

    “What was presented as discipline by the Romney campaign by staying on one message, the economy, was a strategic error,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. She argued that Romney handed Obama a victory by failing to focus on a socially conservative agenda.

    On the flip side, other party leaders are insisting his loss means the GOP needs to reject some of the harsh rhetoric Romney embraced on issues important to women and Hispanics. “The country is changing, and the people our party appeals to is a static group,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy.

    Romney won the nomination over the course of years. While he formally ended his first presidential bid in 2008 after losing the nomination to John McCain, he went on to build a network of political support by turning immediately to raising money for candidates and officeholders in the states he would need to carry him to the 2012 nomination.

    He formally launched his second presidential bid in June 2011. Many members of his senior staff were already living in Boston by that point, uprooting lives in Washington or New York to commit to Romney’s campaign.

    On Tuesday, that all ended. By the end, running mate Paul Ryan said Romney was “running on fumes.”

    As the returns rolled in and state after state was called for Obama, Romney tuned out entirely at times.

    “At one point tonight, he just turned off the TV and just played with the grandkids,” said longtime aide Eric Fehrnstrom, standing in the ballroom after Romney’s concession speech.


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    12 Comments
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    11 years ago

    I think it would be great if Obama offered him the Secretary of the Treasury position. Romney has a background in finance and would be good fit for the position. Of course Republicans would scream bloody murder at the thought of bipartisanship and call him a traitor, but if he really only cares about helping the country, he would take the job.

    11 years ago

    I don’t have to worry how Romney occupies himself, he doesn’t have to worry about paying his mortgage and putting food on the table. He can do what other retired rich people do, he can start up and run a charity that actually helps people, now that’s a good job for retired millionaires.

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    11 years ago

    Don’t worry about him, he will be ok. if you are going to worry, worry about the country!

    11 years ago

    Reliable sources are reporting that current Chief of Staff Jack (Jacob) Lew is being vetted for Treasury. (Certainly easier to keep shabbos.)

    SherryTheNoahide
    SherryTheNoahide
    11 years ago

    I don’t feel sorry for him when I read this article. I’m sorry, but I just don’t! A man who was handed a fortune, and made it into an even BIGGER fortune by firing tons & tons of people & “flipping businesses”, not to mention being in high levels of position w\in his cult, er, “religion”, and hiding tons of $ from his OWN country…wants to be President too?!

    Well sorry Mitt: YOU CAN’T HAVE IT ALL! And you don’t deserve it anyway! You weren’t up to snuff! You & most of your crew!

    And your rhetoric against a popular, decent, honorable & intelligent President, DIDN’T WORK- people (thank G-d) were smart enough to see through it, and especially, to see through YOU & all your misinformation & lying, you big phoney!

    You deserved to lose if anything, for setting such a HORRIBLE & poor-excuse of an example for this country, because of how you treated a decent President, how you talked about those that are less fortunate, those that have in some cases virtually NOTHING, though they work like dogs at their jobs!

    You ought to have been ASHAMED of yourself as a “religous” person, for NEVER truly standing up for the poor, the disabled, OR the racists in your party! But then, what else should I expect from a man who believes that when he dies, he’ll get to be the “god” of his own planet, spirit wives & dead black Mormons, to continue to serve him in heaven as slaves! LOL

    And Conservatives: Give me a break people! You’re JUST FINE accusing President Obama of being a Muslim! Well he’s not, but even if he’d were, THAT WOULD BE OK, because I’d much rather have a President in office praying to the REAL G-D, than a cult-member, and if the President had belonged to some ridiculous religon like this, you ALL would have flipped your lids!

    Same when you all made excuses for Sarah Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter, even though you all know d*mned well had President Obama had a pregnant, BLACK teenage daughter up on stage next to him, you’d stick your noses IN THE AIR about it & then say HaShem-only-knows-what about it to all your friends! So please…

    Don’t feel sorry for Mitt! Let Mitt deal w\Mitt!

    If you ask Me… it’s time some of YOU do a little self-reflection of what party you chose to align yourselves with! Because I think the argument of the Republicans being the “moral” or “compassionate” party is LONG OVER.

    You folks (and your “values”) lost BADLY yesterday. Time for at least a *little* self relection maybe?? Just a thought…

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    11 years ago

    He can go back to his half-dozen houses and hundreds of millions of dollars

    Shtarker
    Active Member
    Shtarker
    11 years ago

    Mitt Romney, like John McCain before him, lost the election because his party pushed him too far to the right. Were they allowed to run on their principles, both could have won.

    Now the Republican Party now has to make some serious choices about its future. I think Mitt Romney would make an outstanding chairperson for the Republican National Committee. His time has finally come.