In his first major speech since his presidential defeat Mitt Romney told fellow conservatives Friday he remains optimistic about their movement and will help them take back the White House. "It's fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America, about conservative solutions, about the Republican Party," Romney told thousands gathered at the annual CPAC just outside Washington. "I utterly reject pessimism," he declared. "We may not have carried November 7th, but we haven't lost the country we love. And we have not lost our way."

Defeated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said it "kills" him to be just another spectator rather than US president as political gridlock paralyzes Washington. "It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done," Romney told Fox News in an interview broadcast on Sunday, his first since losing to President Barack Obama last November. The former Massachusetts governor blamed the Democratic president for the latest crisis to hit the US capital -- the so-called sequester spending cuts totaling $85 billion this year.

Defeated US Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney's son Tagg ruled out running for Senate on Monday after speculation that he might jump in to seek a newly open Massachusetts seat. "I have been humbled by the outreach I received this weekend encouraging me to become a candidate for the US Senate," said Tagg Romney, in a statement issued after reports that he was preparing a run.