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It’s not clear to me why Mitt Romney was so hell-bent on delivering his Detroit Economic Club speech today (officially unveiling the tax plan everybody’s been writing about all week) at a nearly-empty Ford Field (he even joked about it) but that’s what he did, after his poor advance team discarded several scenarios for making the site look no more empty than his rhetoric.
Maybe he thought it was a suitable venue for doing a big shout-out to the Detroit Lions, who recently completed their best season in a couple of decades. But even at their absolute nadir, the Lions were drawing a lot more than the 1200 souls who showed up to listen to Mitt’s pithy remarks. And from a superstitious point of view, Romney should probably be aware the resurgent Lions haven’t quite made it to the Superbowl just yet.
Sometimes the Romney Death Star looks terrifying to us mere mortals whose ambitions are clouded by inconveniences like day-jobs and scruples. But sometimes it looks more like a machine built around a self-regarding man who thinks his image is too big for anything smaller than a stadium Jumbotron.
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T2 on February 24, 2012 2:02 PM:
clever camera angles by Networks afraid of accidentally revealing something true managed to mostly conceal the empty stadium. But you have to wonder about what goes through Mitt Romney's head...is the thinking "gee, after all these millions of dollars, there is NOBODY here to listen to me, this is starting to suck". Or is he thinking "Wow, after all these millions of dollars, 1200 people, what a GREAT TURNOUT I'm getting!". Problem is, either way, it doesn't portend well for the future.
Steve on February 24, 2012 2:06 PM:
During the 2008 campaign, my wife took the kids to the local science center one day while I was at work. Later, she told me she had been quite surprised to find out John McCain was actually at the science center that day, making some kind of campaign appearance. She mentioned it was kind of hard to get around the place because of all the kids. "Oh, were they there to see John McCain?" I asked. "No, not at all, it just seems like a lot of kids come to the science center."
I didn't know at that point how the election would turn out, but it struck me as somewhat unfair that one guy was selling out football stadiums and the other guy was having trouble getting people to come listen to him at the local science center.
T2 on February 24, 2012 2:12 PM:
another thing: I did see some close-ups of the metal folding chair set-up and crowd for Romney's Detroit speech.....all white businessmen in gray suits. Ever been to Detroit?
Well, suffice to say there's a rather large African American population there, actually a majority. I guess none of them could get off work on the GM assembly lines to come to MItt's talk.
Squishy Mitt on February 24, 2012 2:15 PM:
Thank you all for coming. You must be the one percent.
square1 on February 24, 2012 2:15 PM:
Jokes about the optics aside, the bottom line is a simple one: If it were up to Mitt Romney, Detroit would never have been saved, Ford, GM, and Chrysler would be out of business and every auto plant in Michigan would either be foreign owned (likely after negotiating the evisceration of union contracts) or closed.
That, and not empty stadiums, is what makes Romney the wrong guy for the job.
T2 on February 24, 2012 2:17 PM:
for those who want to see what a failed Presidential Campaign looks like:
http://img.ly/em2N
Mitch on February 24, 2012 2:19 PM:
Romney's Death Star is about as scary as a soaking-wet Ewok in a tutu would be.
Sure he has money, but that won't overcome his principle weaknesses: Independents & Progressives know that he's wishy-washy scum, Fundie theocrats are suspicious of his heretical religions, and non-Fundie conservatives are turned off by his "liberal" record as governor of Mass.
The corporate wing of the GOP might support him, but that will not be enough to win the election. The pathetic support that he (barely) receives from his Party and supposed base is proof of that; his 1,200 member audience displays this wonderfully.
Could you imagine Obama giving a speech ANYWHERE and only having 1,200 attendees?
jjm on February 24, 2012 3:37 PM:
"Sure he has money, but that won't overcome his principLE weaknesses:" -- should be principAL, but in all fairness it is also very true that his principles are indeed among the weakest I've ever seen.
biggerbox on February 24, 2012 3:46 PM:
So, the pundits keep telling me that the other candidates don't stand a chance against Romney's "organization". But he doesn't have an advance team that can find a suitable venue for the speech, with room for overflow, except for the football stadium? Even in Detroit, which the media would have me believe is mostly a blasted wasteland, there must have been better locations. Why couldn't the "organization" find one?
Mitch on February 24, 2012 3:59 PM:
@jjm
Lol, sorry about that. Typing too much today, apparently. I'm having typos all over the place. I definitely agree that Romney has weak principles, if any at all.
j on February 24, 2012 4:17 PM:
Apparently it was a pathetic try all around, he gave his little speech about the trees being the right size, he even said he liked the roads. When he said his wife had two cadillacs it was like he thought every wife had 2 cars.
T2 on February 24, 2012 4:51 PM:
the 'two Cadillacs" line will look great in the Dem campaign adds. But really, the Romney's need lots of cars because they have lots of resort residences all across the country. They can't be expected to drive one of the caddies around to all of them.
BetweenTheLines on February 24, 2012 6:45 PM:
@ T2
Lol. Thanks for sharing that pic.