Jingle Bell Time Is a Swell Time to Decide About a 2024 Campaign

All of this is not exactly new in politics.

In December 2018, Kamala Harris, then a senator from California, said she would decide on a 2020 presidential campaign after talking with her family “over the holiday.” (She got in.) Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said the same month that “during the holidays” he planned to “take a lot of stock about what I want to do next.” (He got in, too.)

The politicians of America will be happy to learn that, for the most part, what happens in a family holiday summit stays in a family holiday summit. A number of current and former elected officials and their aides were reluctant to divulge details of even long-ago family discussions.

At least one such conversation, however, is part of the public record.

Mitt Romney allowed a documentary filmmaker, Greg Whiteley, to record him and his family over a period of six years, during his two unsuccessful presidential campaigns.

In December 2006, Mr. Romney, jotting notes on a legal pad, led a family meeting at his Utah home with a fire blazing, as shown in the documentary, “Mitt,” which is available on Netflix. Mr. Romney polled his adult sons and their wives about the pros and cons of whether he should run for president in 2008.

“I think emotionally it would be hard on everybody, but it would be an amazing experience,” one of his daughters-in-law said.

“If you don’t win,” his son Tagg said, “the country may think of you as a laughingstock,” adding: “And that’s OK. But I think you have a duty to your country and to God to see what comes of it.”

Mr. Romney ran, but lost in the primaries to John McCain. He came back to win the 2012 Republican nomination but was defeated by President Barack Obama.