Mitt Romney interview to air on Fox News. Is an Act 2 for him in the works?

Mitt Romney is inching his way back into the public arena. In an excerpt of the Fox News interview released Friday, he weighs in on the 'sequester,' commenting on President Obama's handling of it.

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Now, let's be clear: We are in no way suggesting he's going to run for office again. In the wake of last November's loss, Romney was pretty much persona non grata within his own party. He was the target of a huge outpouring of Republican frustration, as party leaders and pundits assailed his campaign's competence and his own out-of-touch comments – most notably, the "47 percent" remark and the one about "self-deportation." To many, Romney became synonymous with the GOP of the past.

Liz Marlantes

Correspondent

Liz Marlantes covers politics for the Monitor and is a regular contributor to the Monitor's political blog, DC Decoder.

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And certainly, many within the party still hold little affection for the man they see as having blown a very winnable race. Conservative activist Richard Viguerie wrote on his website Friday that Romney should use his CPAC speech to "apologize to the assembled conservative activists, and Americans in general, for running a content-free campaign that inflicted four more years of Barack Obama and his radical secular liberal agenda on a country already being bled white by the wounds inflicted during Obama’s first term."

Still, there appears to be a bit of a détente going on, and a general expectation that Romney may have some sort of Act 2 in the works. There have been rumors about a possible Fox News gig – though, frankly, we have a little trouble envisioning that, since public speaking hasn't been Romney's strong point and when he's tried his hand at political analysis, it's been semi-disastrous (see the above-mentioned "47 percent" comment).

Other speculation has focused on Romney starting a foundation or a political group aimed at helping Republican candidates. Slate's David Weigel has even proposed that Romney become the new emergency manager for the city of Detroit.

Alberto Cardenas, head of CPAC, said in a release that Romney would be speaking on "the current state of affairs in America and the world and his perspective on the future of the conservative movement." While some may dismiss Romney's views as irrelevant, we'd wager that he'll get a more appreciative reception than he would have just a few months ago.