In an interview aired on Fox News on Sunday, Mitt Romney pulled the plug on speculation that he would launch a political comeback. He intends to remain politically active, he said, but don't expect him back for a third presidential bid.
"That was it," he said. "That was enough."
Speculation started that Romney was not done with politics after it was announced last month that the former presidential candidate would speak at the American Conservative Unions (ACU) Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in March. The CPAC appearance will be Romneys first public event since the election. Traditionally CPAC has showcased Republicans who are angling for their partys presidential nomination. A procession of possible Republican hopefuls in 2016 will be speaking at CPAC along with Romney.
In his interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Romney likened his current status to getting off a roller coaster.
Even his interview with Wallace was interpreted by some as a means of rehabbing his reputation with flattened Republicans.
"We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs," Romney said. "But the ride ends and then you get off. And it's not like, oh, can't we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life? It's like, no, the ride's over."
With that, Romney slammed the door on making a political comeback. The son of George Romney, a businessman who served as governor of Michigan and later in Richard Nixons Cabinet, Mitt Romney left the business world to challenge Democratic icon Teddy Kennedy in a bitterly contested U.S. Senate contest in Massachusetts back in 1994. After losing to Kennedy, Romney went on to lead the 2002 winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City before winning the governorship of Massachusetts later that year. During his term as governor, Romney supported a state health-care law which many critics on the left and right insisted was a model for the federal health-care law that Barack Obama backed.
Romney pursued the presidency for the better part of six years. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and positioned himself to the right of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. Romney edged Mike Huckabee to place second behind McCain in terms of the popular vote for the 2008 primaries. Romney never stopped running and he was the early favorite to win the Republican nomination in 2012. While Romney faced some rough spots, losing Iowa and other states to Rick Santorum and being bested by Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, he went on to win the Republican nomination. Despite pundits predicting that the 2012 presidential election would be close, Obama beat Romney by a comfortable margin in November, winning the popular vote by 4 percent and winning the Electoral College by 126 votes.
While defeated presidential nominees usually head to the political sidelines after election losses, in recent years they have remained active in public life. Al Gore stayed in the public eye as an environmental activist and launching a cable television station. After losing to George W. Bush in 2004, John Kerry remained engaged in the Senate and was recently appointed to be Barack Obamas secretary of state. Despite losing to Obama in 2008, John McCain remains one of the leading Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this story exclusively for Sunshine State News.
