Ann Romney backs Mitt’s denial of running for president

Ann Romney, while apparently game to answer questions on other topics, seems determined to prevent the speculation from spiralling any further.Brigham and Women’s Hospital

WASHINGTON— Just in case Mitt Romney’s “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no” wasn’t enough, his wife, Ann, has added a new retort to questions about whether he plans on running for president a third time: “Done. Done. Done.”

“Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done,” Ann Romney said in a Los Angeles Times interview published Tuesday. Separately, she told Globe columnist Shirley Leung, in an interview published Tuesday, that the possibility of a run “would be news to me.”

Mitt Romney’s “no” quote came nine months ago, in a New York Times article posing the same question.

But the replies have not quelled the speculation.

“For every one time he’s indicated there may be a chance, there’s been 100 times that he’s shut the door,” said Kevin Madden, a close adviser in Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential runs. “So you have to take that ratio for what it is.”

A Washington Post article published Tuesday suggested that Romney’s aides are pondering a scenario in which he might reconsider closer to 2016.

Why the flurry of publicity for Ann Romney’s take on the presidential speculation?

She put herself back in the spotlight as she and her husband were slated on Tuesday to launch the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, hoping to raise millions of dollars.

Ann Romney, while apparently game to answer questions on other topics, seems determined to prevent the speculation from spiraling any further, noting the family’s sentiment following the 2012 race. “We said at the end, we will never do this again,” she said on NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday.