Mitt Romney Blames Election Loss Partly on Hurricane Sandy

Seven months to the day after losing the presidency, former Republican candidate Mitt Romney said he wishes Hurricane Sandy hadn't happened because it hurt his chances in the election.

"I wish the hurricane hadn't have happened when it did because it gave the president a chance to be presidential and to be out showing sympathy for folks," Romney told CNN's Political Ticker. "That's one of the advantages of incumbency. But, you know, you don't look back and worry about each little thing and how could that have been different."

Sandy, a hurricane-superstorm hybrid, slammed into the East Coast less than a week before the 2012 election, causing insurmountable damage, taking more than 100 lives, and essentially halting President Barack Obama and Romney's campaigns.

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The president immediately flew to New Jersey to survey the damage with Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who embraced and praised Obama's response. Conservatives criticized Christie for showing such public support for Obama just days before the election, and some have even blamed the governor's actions for Romney's loss.

But Romney has repeatedly maintained that he does not believe Christie hurt his chances in the election — that it was simply the timing of the storm and his own campaign mismanagement.

"I'm not going to worry about how Chris was doing what he thought was best for the people of his state," Romney told the Washington Post in March. "I lost my election because of my campaign, not because of what anyone else did."

Romney has also admitted that his "47 percent" comment, in which he said at a private fundraiser that nearly half the country was reliant on government services and thus wouldn't vote for him, "very harmful."

Romney has previously said he truly thought he was going to win the presidency.

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"We were convinced that we would win," he told the Post. "We saw that the polls were close. But we knew that the energy and passion was with out voters, and my heart said we were going to win."

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