Romneys Voted Against Mitt Running, 10-2

Even the would-be candidate voted no: Dan Balz book
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2013 10:33 AM CDT
Romneys Voted Against Mitt Running, 10-2
Mitt Romney pauses while speaking at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 15, 2013.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Mitt Romney's entrance into the 2012 race was apparently no easy decision. Around Christmas of 2010, he and his family voted on whether he should run. Of 12 votes, 10 were nays—including Romney's own, the Huffington Post reports, per Washington Post reporter Dan Balz's upcoming book, Collision 2012. Romney, the book says, wasn't sure he'd be able to win the primaries given current trends in the Republican Party. "Even up until the day before he made the announcement, he was looking for excuses to get out of it," said son Tagg Romney.

"If there had been someone who he thought would have made a better president than he, he would gladly have stepped aside," but the rest of the candidates didn't look likely to beat President Obama, Tagg Romney told Balz. Other nuggets from the book:

  • Balz reports that when convention organizers wanted to cut Chris Christie's intro by three minutes, Christie threatened to lengthen his speech by an F-bomb.
  • Romney reportedly told Ohio Sen. Rob Portman that his son's sexuality was no issue as the former governor chose a running mate.
  • Clint Eastwood's empty-chair speech was indeed a total surprise to the campaign. "Utterly unimaginable," an aide tells the Huffington Post.
  • Both Romney and Paul Ryan were convinced on Election Day that they'd win; Ryan was already thinking about who could replace him on the House Budget Committee.
(More Mitt Romney stories.)

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