Is this the end of Romney's political career?

Once you’ve been the nominee, and lose, that’s it if you don’t have an office to return to. Besides, he didn’t have any ideas that would motivate someone to stay in the public eye. He’ll juts go and spend time with the 16 grandkids at all his houses.

Goodness, I hope so.

Probably. I think Rubio is next in line for the Republican nominee in ‘16. The Dems better have it together because he will be a formidable opponent.

Most likely.

He won’t run for president again. The trend lately, especially among conservatives, is that you get your one shot and then you move out of the way for the next guy (assuming you lost). McCain, Kerry, Gore, Dole, Bush 1, Dukkakis, Mondale, Carter, Ford…. none of them attempted to run again.

He could attempt to run for a lesser office. There is precedent for that, in fact the other two most recent presidential losers are still both senators. I have few doubts he could win a state-wide, or even a local election (pending the state). But at the moment at least it seems unlikely he will run for any office, given the statements he’s made and what not.

You may see him take up a role like what Carter or Gore did, and champion some kind of issue in their political “retirement.”

He has been with Bain Capital since leaving Harvard, recruited into equity management by Mr. Bain himself and sent on a fast-track to the top. That is where he will return to pull the strings of power.

Appearing on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday, Ann Romney said that should he lose, this campaign would be her husband’s last.

Absolutely, he will not run again,” she told the hosts when asked whether losing to President Obama this fall would end Mitt Romney’s political career. “Nor will I.

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Hopefully they keep their word. But they are Romneys so they are probably already printing up Romney 2016 lawn signs.

I think it is the end for him.

I think that the better question is whether this was a defeat for Romney, or a defeat for Republican extremism. Romney is done and over with, but was it him, or what he represented that finished him?

@jerv Great comment!

@jerv Only a party with some connection to the fact-based universe would turn to soul searching when the electorate rejected their policy agenda.

I hate to say it, but very close to half the electorate voted for Romney. There is a good argument to be made that they only need make a few tweaks, and they can win a national election.

Whether Romney retires or not really doesn’t matter. The problem is that so many people think Romney is a viable candidate. He wasn’t nearly as forcibly retired as I was hoping he would be. We really need to be thinking about how to get Republicans to cooperate to help this nation instead of their normal inclination to rip it apart. They keep asking what we’ll do for them, but they should be thinking about what we can live with.

@wundayatta I dunno really. I mean if you look at the “environmental” factors effecting this, especially the economy… Obama should’ve been overwhelmingly beaten. Instead he maintained his same levels in all he minority groups, and enough of the white vote to still pull out a victory that is going to end up being something around 2%, with over 50% total vote.

Imagine 4 years from now, if the Republicans throw out someone like Paul Ryan, and the economy is in better shape and the minorities make up even more of the electorate.

@tedd One can only hope for a scenario like that. But first we have to get through these four years. We have an opportunity to do some good things. We can consolidate health care for all. We can do good immigration reform. We can cut back on the excesses of the money industry. We can stop making war against other nations. We can improve access to education. We can start preparing for rising sea levels and increasingly damaging storms.

There’s a lot of work to do. I hope the Rs will be in more of a mood to help. Failing that, I hope we can find a way to be constructive even if they won’t help.

Maybe an acting career beckons, any number of roles would suit, Dumb & Dumbest…..Pee Wee’s father…...he could even play a retarded Tarzan, running around in a loincloth, beating his chest at garden centres, claiming the moral high ground amongst the conifers.

I think he’ll go visit some of his money in Grand Cayman, nice place to go this time of year.

@tedd He doesn’t have a real home state. He pretends Massachusetts, but his new “primary residence” is in San Diego, Utah claims him as a favored son, he grew up in Michigan, and his summer home is in New Hampshire. Utah is the only state that went his way, but now he proved he is not the White Stallion.

@wundayatta One doesn’t have to put too much faith in hope. The Republican party, assessing their losses, are already telling themselves the only problem was they weren’t extreme enough. And the electorate is getting increasingly diverse and young. So long as they think they can solve their War on Women, Self Deportation, Criminalize abortion even in cases of rape and the life of the mother by simply telling the demographics put off by those positions that “We love you women…” and such; they will keep on loosing big time.

Nixon lost the Presidential race in 1960, then lost a run for Governor of California in 1962. He told the press they wouldn’t have him to kick around any more. 6 years later, he won the Presidency.

He said he won’t run again. I see no reason not to believe him.

@phaedryx Romney also said he was totally for and completely against abortion rights, gender equality, marriage equality, health care reform… The list is long. Oh, and Nixon, playing an early version of the blame-the-librul-press-card, said; “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” But he lied and they did kick him around some more—a lot more.

@ETpro politics have changed since Nixon’s time. Republican nominees don’t get a second chance at a presidential run. Romney said a lot of things to play to the far right; he had obvious reasons to do so.

Why would he close the door on running again if he has plans to run again? The simpler explanation is that he said he won’t run again because he isn’t going to run again.

@ETpro @phaedryx I would bet large sums of money Romney does not run for president again.

I would not however be shocked to see him run for governor or senator somewhere… Senator significantly more likely. Though I doubt either would be anytime soon.

@phaedryx In this case, I think that you and @tedd are right, Romney won’t run again.

We can only hope the spineless jellyfish won’t run for president again.