A few months ago, Mitt Romney said he didn't think Hurricane Sandy led to his defeat last fall.
“I don’t think that’s why the president won the election,” he told Fox News, pushing back against the conservative pundits who had argued that if it weren't for the storm, and the chance it gave Obama to look presidential just days before the election, Romney would have won.
But now—just like with raising the minimum wage, the individual health care mandate, and a woman's right to choose, among other issues—Romney may have changed his mind.
"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 Thursday, showing the kind of concern for ordinary people—discussing a storm that killed hundreds and caused an estimated $50 billion worth of damage—that characterized his presidential run. (He was "looking at the storm through a political lens," CNN.com politely put it.)
"That's one of the advantages of incumbency," Romney added. "But, you know, you don't look back and worry about each little thing and how could that have been different."
Of course you don't.
In reality, of course, most analyses show Sandy made little difference. Still, it's fascinating to see Romney seeming to grasp on to it.