What does a defeated Presidential candidate do?

The fireworks are unlit and the champagne unpopped. America has spoken more resoundingly than the news networks wanted us to think: Mitt Romney will not be President, and it wasn’t even close.

The problem with losing a U.S. election is that everyone knows about it.

And yet, there is a forgiving atmosphere in America; celebrities seem to maintain their afterglow longer.

Is Mitt is now consigned to champagne receptions at country clubs with sycophantic billionaires, or will he continue to campaign for the issues that matter to him, like...  What were they again?

It doesn’t matter now; Romney conceded graciously, and is certainly eligible to represent his party in the U.S.’s upper legislative house - the Senate.

John McCain returned here after his 2008 kicking by Obama. He was re-elected in 2010, and continues to quietly represent Arizona, which should be enough for a 76-year-old who selected Sarah Palin as a presidential running mate.

Similarly, George W. Bush’s second scalp - John Kerry - still serves as a U.S. Senator.

Like Romney, Kerry has immense personal wealth, and as such has spent time establishing a Political Action Committee (PAC) called Keeping America’s Promise. This PAC helps fund Democratic candidates, and has stumped up millions for political campaigns since 2004.

But the best example of a renewed legacy in the modern age is Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore. After losing the 2000 election, he quit frontline politics to campaign purely on an environmental platform.

He has published books such as 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth and the best-selling The Assault On Reason, whilst setting up several non-profit organisations. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Additionally for Gore, he may have been the victim of poor timing. In 2000, America was rallying against the tide of sleaze within the Bill Clinton administration, which made Al Gore’s election very unlikely.

On the flip-side, this was a very winnable election for the Republican party. In 2008 McCain and Palin were sent to fail, as only then could the GOP rebrand itself after eight years of George W. Bush.

That Mitt Romney was the centre-piece of that rebrand indicates a party still in turmoil and that is dealing with shifting ethic demographics poorly.

For Mitt Romney, retirement is not an option. After all, he looks great for 65, and has years of activity ahead of him. I predict it will be the death of the Religious Right that will concern him most publicly. Either way, I don’t expect Romney to cancel his country club membership just yet. Defeat is relative.