Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'

Mitt Romney has made some gaffes this election season, and he's not afraid to admit it. Sometimes he says things "that make me want to kick myself in the seat of my pants," he tells Peggy Noonan in an interview as he's on the cusp of officially clinching the nomination. "I've had a couple of those during the campaign, which have haunted me a little bit, but I'm sure before this is over will haunt me a lot," he notes, and specifically mentions the "I like to fire people" moment. More from the Wall Street Journal:

• The media are not fair about such moments, he points out. They say, "'Gosh, we just want you to be spontaneous,' but at the same time if you say anything in the wrong order, you're gonna be sorry!"
• It's not just the media keeping track of the campaign, however. Romney himself keeps a trail diary on his iPad to remember "the feelings—the ups, the downs, the people I meet, and the sense I have about what's going to happen."
• Will this election be another 1980 or 1996? Neither: "It's 2012," he says. American history is filled with "inflection points ... where culture, industry, even military strategy have changed." We're in one such moment now, he asserts: We could go the way of big-government Europe under President Obama, or elect Romney and "surprise" the world with "economic vitality."

Click through for Noonan's full interview. (More Mitt Romney stories.)