After trying campaign, Paul Ryan says losing race 'a foreign experience'

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (left) embraces vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as Ann Romney (third from left) and Janna Ryan embrace after conceding the race during his election night rally in Boston.

For Paul Ryan, election day as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate had begun with bright promise. The polls were looking good, he said. A tight national race was expected.
But as the results came in, as President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden began to roll through the battlegrounds, the outcome was becoming clear. So Ryan, his wife and three children made their way to the Boston hotel where GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his family were watching returns.
"We were with the Romneys when we knew it was over," Ryan said in a telephone interview Monday with the Journal Sentinel.
And what was the mood like in the hotel suite?
"Pretty sad," Ryan said. "And our comments more or less revolved around our concern for the country."
It was an unusual election day for Ryan, his first loss. He said losing was "a foreign experience. It's tough to describe it."
The 42-year-old Janesville native did keep his congressional seat. Yet he won re-election by his smallest margin, just 11.5 points, over Democrat Rob Zerban. And Ryan couldn't deliver Wisconsin for Romney.