WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney has revealed that his campaign gaffes “haunt” him and that he sees politics as “like a sport for old guys,” in a wide-ranging interview.
Romney, the only active nominee remaining in the GOP contest, also said he had kept a journal of the race to this point and would continue to do so as he challenged Barack Obama for the presidency ahead of November’s election, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Now this is going to make my iPad a subject of potential theft,” he joked after saying that he used the device to record his thoughts, writing every two or three days, so that 10 years from now he can “remember what it was like.”
He also wanted to capture “the feelings — the ups the downs, the people I meet and the sense I have about what’s going to happen. It’s kind of fun to go back and read, as Ann and I do from time to time.”
The pace and intensity of the campaign were part of the attraction of politics, he said, describing the “game” as “like a sport for old guys.”
“I mean, you know, I can’t compete in competitive sports very well, but I can compete in politics,” he told the Journal. “What was the old ABC ‘Wide World of Sports’ slogan? ‘The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.’ The only difference is victory is still a thrill, but I don’t feel agony in loss.”
But that, he said, was not to say there have not been some setbacks on the way to becoming presumptive GOP nominee in his second bid for the presidency.
“The only time I’m unhappy is if I’ve done something that hurt the prospects for the success of our effort,” he said of his frame of mind, adding that his errors “make me want to kick myself in the seat of my pants.”
“I’ve had a couple of [gaffes] during the campaign, which have haunted me a little bit, but I’m sure before this is over will haunt me a lot,” he said.
While Romney admitted to being increasingly wary of his words for fear of them being used against him out of context, he dismissed suggestions that his father’s 1968 presidential campaign getting derailed by comments that he had been “brainwashed” about the Vietnam War played into his thinking.
“I have to think not only about what I say in a full sentence but what I say in a phrase,” he said. “You will be taken out of context, you’ll be clipped, and you’ll be battered with things you said.”