Romney: 'My wife thinks I should run'

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Former Governor Mitt Romney may not have decided whether to run for president, but someone else in his household has already made the call.

"My wife thinks I should run," he declared tonight in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. "She's absolutely committed. She's saying, 'You've got to run, you've got to have somebody who understands the world of the economy, small business, who can create jobs.' She's convinced I've got to run. But I have to look more broadly and say, 'Alright, Do I have a team necessary to do this?'"

Romney, continuing a whirlwind tour of television interviews to promote the new paperback version of his book, also talked up potential presidential rival Sarah Palin.

"I believe she is an extraordinarily powerful and effective voice in our party, that she has generated a great deal of support and attention," he said of the former Alaska governor. "She'd be great in a primary process."

When Morgan asked whether Romney could beat Palin, he said, "I don't know the answer to that."

The host then asked whether his wife knows the answer.

"She probably does," Romney replied.

Morgan then declared Ann Romney more interesting than the former governor himself -- "Nevermind what you think, cause I think she's fascinating here," he said -- and asked Mitt Romney why his wife thinks he lost the 2008 Republican nomination.

"Boy, that's a darn good question. I can't read her mind on all dimensions," Romney said.

He went on to say that both he and Ann think that Senator John McCain had an edge on foreign policy.

"At the time we were running, the most important issue that the country was concerned about was Iraq," Romney said. "And John McCain was an in-disputed expert on matters related to Iraq, and that was something which augured in his favor."

"I think I also spent a lot of time talking about issues which were not central to the reason I was running," Romney said, perhaps offering a clue for a sharper focus in his second presidential bid.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.