Mitt Romney didn't want to run for president, son claims Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and multi-billionaire businessman, has been widely criticised for blaming his loss in the November 6 election on President Barack Obama's "gifts" to Latinos, women and the poor. "What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote," Mr Romney said during a call with campaign donors in mid-November that represented his first public reaction to his election loss. The Globe story sought to look beyond that narrative and examine what really went wrong. It focused on the fact that Mr Romney was unhappy that one of his most trusted advisers, Mike Murphy - the architect of his successful 2002 run for governor of Massachusetts - did not join the campaign. Instead, the campaign settled on Stuart Stevens, who had worked on Romney's 2008 presidential bid. The Globe story also highlights the decision to downplay Mr Romney's biography in favour of going after Mr Obama and the flagging US economy. Campaign strategists feared that highlighting Mr Romney's background would open the Mormon candidate up more to personal attacks that he was wealthy, out-of-touch and belonged to a minority faith.