It isn’t easy to interview someone who’s just been crying. I learned that lesson a few years ago, when, as a intern for The Ottawa Sun, I was forced to question a father whose son had just been killed by a drunk driver. The grieving man didn’t feel much like answering my questions, and I didn’t feel much like asking them. But events occur, information exists, and stories must be told.

I relearned this lesson interviewing Mitt Romney’s supporters on the first morning of the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week in Washington, DC. Fans of the former Massachusetts governor were visible and numerous, wearing navy-blue suits and smiling faces. Supporters of Arizona Senator John McCain were much less prominent, and rarer still were button-wearing Mike Huckabee fans, save one college student who told me he was excited about what he saw as an imminent “Huckaboom.”

While the Huckaboom failed to materialize that morning, it was Romney’s devotees who were destined to be disappointed at CPAC. During his twelve o'clock speech to a devoted crowd of well-groomed onlookers, the youthful-looking former CEO stunned the crowd with his announcement that he was suspending his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Shouts of “No!” and “I don’t believe it!” mixed with gasps, as if they were Nirvana fans just finding out about Kurt Cobain's suicide. Before receiving a standing ovation from the teary crowd, the man who blazed the trail for future Mormon presidents stated his reasons for departing from the race by, as was his wont, accurately and fairly representing other candidates’ positions: “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

An abandoned booth for Romney supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week.

But before Romney’s supporters had a chance to decide whom they would support to ensure the next American president doesn’t surrender to our enemies, they needed time. Time to grieve. Time to think about what went wrong. And time to reflect on why the nation had stupidly rejected the precious opportunity to make history by electing, just this once, a multimillionaire white man.

“My heart is broken,” said Jillian Rowley, a junior from the University of Denver. “I’ve already cried a lot.” For Rowley, political disillusionment came early. “He was so sincere,” she lamented. Indeed, other than the times he vacillated on or abandoned once-cherished positions on abortion, taxation, gun control, immigration, gay marriage, the Vietnam War, gambling, campaign finance reform, climate change, the Reagan administration, and conservatism, it’s hard to think of a single instance in which Romney was anything but steadfast and straightforward in his beliefs..

Politics is a cruel business, though, and this wasn’t news to Ruth Malhotra, the chairwoman of the prestigious Georgia Tech College Republicans who had been campaigning for Romney for over a year. Thursday marked the end of a journey for Malhotra—a journey of hope (and also an actual journey across the country). Romney was just so conservative, she said. “And he was very educated, about the Middle East and foreign policy,” she said. Indeed, Romney had proved his bona fides on foreign policy during a Republican debate by suggesting the United States should “double Guantanamo.” Many thinkers and experts had searched for innovative strategies to win over Muslims skeptical that America is indeed a beacon of laws and fairness, but none—none—had considered expanding the illegal prison camp housing individuals who, though not officially accused of any crime, are denied access to legal counsel and oversight from human rights organizations. None before Mitt, that is. And for this he was mocked by the world. Apparently some ideas are just too far ahead of their time.

The Romney faithful licked their wounds and faced the future of a Mitt-less presidency. The crowd knew a hero when they saw one, and Romney had already left the building.

Jordan Michael Smith is an Editorial Intern at The American Prospect.

This article has been edited from its original version.