Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
By Catalina Camia, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON
- Four months after losing the White House, Mitt Romney is dusting
himself off and starting to speak out about politics and policy again.
In
a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday on Fox News, Romney chided
President Obama for his dealings with congressional Republicans and for
"playing politics" with the automatic budget cuts known as the
sequester.
"I look at this sequester and also the expiration of
the Bush tax cuts as an almost once-in-a-generational opportunity for
America to solve its fiscal problems," he said. "I see this as a huge
opportunity and it's being squandered by politics ... by people who are
more interested in a political victory than doing what's right for the
country."
In mid-March, Romney will come to the Washington suburbs
for an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference - his
first big post-election speech.
Romney garnered about 47% of the
vote to Obama's 51% - an irony considering the flap over the
Republican's secretly taped remarks during the campaign in which he said
47% of Americans were dependent on government assistance and would not
vote for him in any case.
Romney repeated Sunday that he misspoke
and made an "unfortunate" statement that did not reflect his desire to
help all Americans "There's no question that hurt and did real damage to
my campaign," he said.
In the Fox News interview, Romney said he
still wants to help the GOP find ways to reach out to minorities who
voted in droves for Obama and to fix vexing problems with the economy.
But he conceded that he lacks "credibility" because he lost a
presidential race that many Republicans believed was winnable.
He also said he underestimated the appeal of the national health care law that he and other critics call "Obamacare."
"I'm
not going to be telling the Republican Party, 'come listen to me,' the
guy who lost is going to tell you how to win," Romney said. "We have to
do a better job bringing minority voters in to vote for Republicans ...
to help them understand why we're the party with the ideas to make their
lives better."
Unsuccessful presidential candidates usually take
some time trying to find their footing after the election. Republican
John McCain and Democrat John Kerry, for example, threw themselves back
into their work in the Senate after their White House defeats following a
period of lying low.
But Romney is a former Massachusetts
governor, now six years out of office, and appears relishing his role as
a doting grandfather who takes some of his 20 grandchildren to
Disneyland or to go skiing or to toss a ball on the beach. Romney said
his family foundation will be retooled and refocused on all children,
helping them overcome diseases and other issues.
Ann Romney
admitted she is having a tougher time recovering from the election loss,
and acknowledged that she cried at times because she believes her
husband would be doing a better job than Obama.
"I'm mostly over it, but not completely," she said. "You have moments where you go back ... and feel the sorrow of the loss."
She
and her husband said Obama had a better campaign, especially when it
came to mobilizing voters to go to the polls. They said they knew their
supporters were passionate, but that they under-estimated the same
fervor Obama had on his side. Ann Romney also blamed the news media,
saying there was a bias for Obama.
As for his post-election
comments made to donors that Obama gave certain "gifts" to minorities
and other supporters, Romney did not criticize Republicans such as Iowa
Gov. Terry Branstad or conservative columnist George Will who said such
remarks were not helpful to the GOP.
"I'm not going to second guess what other people have to say," Romney said. "Look, I don't look back. I look forward."