Millionaire former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says that he's relieved to be back living "a normal life" following his 2012 loss.
During an interview on Wednesday, conservative radio host Dennis Miller asked the former candidate how it he was "extracting yourself from the bubble."
"The bubble is a different experience, being in your own charter aircraft, having the Secret Service accompany you everywhere go and outside your front door at night," Romney explained. "It's really quite an unusual thing and kind of exciting, certainly initially."
"But I have to admit, being able to go back to our own life and going to the grocery store and shopping on my own is kind of nice to do by myself," he added. "So, I like the life of being an American citizen."
"It's good to live a normal life again."
Romney said he was still concerned about the country and was "looking for the most effective way for me to try and get the country on a course of remaining strong and powerful in terms of our values, our military, our soft power, our economy."
"That's the frustration with losing, which is that I don't have the influence that obviously I could have had, had I won that election."
But "normal life" may mean something different to the average American than it does to Romney and his wife, who reportedly have a net worth of around $250 million.
During a debate in South Carolina last year, the former Bain Capital CEO encouraged voters to send him to Washington because he had “lived in the real streets of America.”
Unlike many Americans, the Romneys have the option of living on the “real streets” at their California beachfront mansion, or one of his homes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Romney took a job as chairman of the executive committee of Solamere Capital, his son Tagg's investment firm, NBC News reported earlier this month.
