'Yeah, I think we were convinced that we would win,' Romney said. Romney: 'Kills me' not to be president

Four months after he lost to President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney says “it kills me” not to be in the White House finding solutions to the nation’s problems.

In his first television interview since the election, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” that he was convinced he’d win until Ohio’s vote came in, and that he damaged his campaign by failing to attract black and Hispanic voters and speaking too freely in his infamous “47 percent” comments.


Romney’s wife, Ann, blamed the media and Obama’s campaign for offering what she described as an unfairly skewed vision of her husband.

( PHOTOS: Mitt Romney through the years)

Both Romneys said he would be more effective at navigating the current political moment.

“I’ll look at what’s happening right now, I wish I were there,” Mitt Romney said. “It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done. The president is the leader of the nation. The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades, knocks the heads together; the president leads. And — and I don’t see that kind of — of leadership happening right now.”

Romney, like congressional Republicans, accused Obama of “campaigning” rather than governing as the sequester loomed. That, Romney said, has been counterproductive.

“Well, no one can think that that’s been a success for the president,” Romney said. “He didn’t think the sequester would happen. It is happening. To date, what we’ve seen is a — the president out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing. Now, what does that do? That causes the Republicans to — to retrench and to put up a wall and to fight back. It’s a very natural human emotion.”

Ann Romney said her husband, had he won, would have solved the sequester by now.

“I totally believe at this moment, if Mitt were there in the office, that we would not be facing sequestration right now,” she said.

Up until polls closed on Election Day, both Romneys were convinced they would be in the White House.

“Yeah, I think we were convinced that we would win,” Mitt Romney said.

Ann Romney said she had no doubt: “I for sure did. I think Mitt intellectually was thinking that it was possible we couldn’t; he knew how close it was.”

Only after he saw the Ohio numbers did Romney realize it would not be.

“It was a slow recognition until ultimately when the Ohio numbers began coming in and they were disappointing,” he said. “I said, look, this looks like we’ve lost — wasn’t certain. Some people said, ‘Oh, look, if this number here comes in, why, you could win.’ But you know, by 8 or 9 o’clock, it was pretty clear that we were not going to win.”

Romney called his inability to win black and Hispanic votes “a real weakness” and said future GOP candidates must do better. He blamed himself for the infamous “47 percent” comments and said he should have been more careful when speaking privately — as he thought he was at the fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla.

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in — in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” he said. “That was a real weakness. Uh, we did very well with the majority population, but not with minority populations. And — and that was a — that was a failing. That was a real mistake.”

Romney called the “47 percent” video unfortunate — as he did when it was leaked by Mother Jones magazine — and doesn’t represent what he believes. He acknowledged that it was damaging.

“You know, when you speak in private, uh, you don’t spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted and — and it could come out wrong and be used,” Romney said. “But, you know, I did. And it was very harmful. What I said is not what I believe. Obviously, my whole campaign — my whole life has been devoted to helping people, all of the people. I care about all the people of the country. But, uh, but that hurt. There’s no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign.”

Romney also said the lengthy GOP presidential primary season, in which he was pummeled for months by Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, hurt his general election chances. But he would not acknowledge that he altered his positions to win the Republican nomination.

“The idea that somehow … the primary made me become more conservative than I was just isn’t, isn’t accurate,” Romney said. “On the other hand, a long and blistering primary, where people are attacking one another and where the attacks sometimes are not on the mark but are creating an un — you know, unfavorable impression — those things are not helpful.”

Ann Romney also said no one in Massachusetts approached her about running for John Kerry’s Senate seat — and that she would have said no if they had.

“No, they didn’t approach me,” she told Wallace. “I don’t think — I think there was a thought that, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be fun for Ann to do that?’ I’m like, ‘Did anyone want to consider how fun it would be for me to do that?’”

Ann Romney did confirm during the interview aired Sunday that she was asked to appear on the ABC show “Dancing With the Stars” but felt she was not in good enough dancing shape.

“I did consider it,” she told Wallace. “I love the show.”

“I would’ve loved to have done it, and I am turning 64, and I started thinking about it,” she said. “I’m not really as flexible as I should be. And now I know, I understand, Dorothy Hamill is been picked, and I thought, oh my gosh, am I glad I didn’t do that! I wouldn’t want to compete against Dorothy!”

While Romney took the blame for his defeat, absolving New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for appearing with Obama after Hurricane Sandy, his wife was more revealing about her feelings. She said she was “blindsided” by the president’s ground game, which she acknowledged was better than their own.

Ann Romney was also tougher than her husband in criticizing the media coverage of the campaign and the Obama operation’s response to it.

“It was not just the campaign’s fault,” she said of his defeat. “I believe it was the media’s fault as well, is that he was not giving — being given a fair shake, that people weren’t allowed to really see him for who he was,” she said.

Asked why that was, she responded: “I’m happy to blame the media.”