Remember the infamous Green Screen speech that John McCain delivered in 2008? And how widely panned it was as a political disaster and evidence of campaign incompetence? Mitt Romney's speech in Detroit today was significantly worse.
For reasons that defy comprehension, the Romney campaign decided to unveil a new economic agenda -- the one he announced just last month apparently wasn't very good -- at Ford Field, a football stadium with 65,000 seats.
The problem, of course, is that he only brought along 1,200 friends to watch. Here's a clip from C-SPAN, showing not only the completely empty seats in the stands, but also the empty seats set up on the ground by the campaign itself.
Everything about this was a mess. In the speech itself, Romney, reading from a teleprompter, not only inexplicably repeated the line about the appropriate height of Michigan trees, but in yet another tone-deaf comment about his wealthy, the Republican added that his wife "drives a couple of Cadillacs." This won't help perceptions of Romney being an out-of-touch, patrician elitist.
In the larger context, for Romney to travel to Detroit to talk about the economy only invited his critics to remind everyone that Romney was prepared to "let Detroit go bankrupt" just three years ago. MoveOn.org, for example, released a tough new ad on the issue today, while UAW rallied to protest Romney at his underwhelming event. Steven Rattner, who led the Obama administration's auto task force in 2009, also marked the occasion with an op-ed explaining once again how very wrong the former governor was about rescuing the industry.
As for the crowd, 1,200 people isn't necessarily an awful number -- if the campaign was hosting an event at a local college or theater. But for Romney go to his purported home state and host an event in an empty football stadium looked pretty awful. Given that Barack Obama could draw a crowd literally 10 times bigger at this point four years ago in Boise, Idaho, also reinforces the perception that Romney's candidacy isn't generating any kind of excitement.
Reports of the Romney campaign's vaunted, professional operation appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
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There are even more gems from this speech. He talked about a strong auto industry that was necessary for Michigan. And he also blamed the unions for the auto industry financial problems. Romney must think everyone outside his social circle is rube.
Nah, he's thinking sheep, baaaaaa....
Have you seen the streets of empty houses, the streetlights turned off, the neighborhoods where the utilities are off, and nice houses are selling for $1600, etc.? I'm amazed they could fine 1200 Republicans in that city! from what I hear, half the city is dead.
A series of wrong decisions led to the auto industry decline. Management complecency: "We lead the world". The unions: "Hey, they're fat cats, let's soak them. Janpan's cars are inferior: Duh, Toyota. I have bought Toyata products for the last 30+ years. And where are most made? In the USA in right to work states.
I would actually mostly agree. Especially in GM's case (I use their logo because I like the letters, not out of devotion), management deferred to the bean-counters, not the engineers or designers. This, combined with an outmoded model of planned obsolescence, resulted in their making cars that nobody wanted. They misjudged our loyalty to "buy American," and ultimately they weren't even very good at counting beans.
Toyota's culture of zero defects may be more responsible for their success than being assembled in right-to-work states.
The bottom line is that Mitt Romney and the rest of the corporate Republicans that bet against GM and the auto bailout also bet against America. Mitt rooted for American ingenuity and American business to fail, and he is still rooting against the hard-working people of this country. Romney is enjoying $20 million beach homes and has his wife driving "two Cadillacs," but he does not want to share the American Dream with the 99 percent us us not wallowing in hedge fund riches. The auto rescue saved the American manufacturing sector, along with 5 million jobs. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
He practically laughs at the dire situation so many Americans find themselves in, and he still can't help bragging about his own good fortune. Disgusting man.
What's the Romney camping "thinking" - desperation, silly......
Hey, cut the Mittster a break! Early on in a campaign there are bound to be missteps. After all, Romney has only been running for. . .what? Eight years?
Seems fair to call them "Mittsteps," no?
Missteps? He has stumbled so many times that he needs knee pads and a face protector.
Better get him a helmet like the special ed kids have, too! (No disrespect toward the kids in special ed is intended -- please don' t go looking for it -- it isn't there!)
Perhaps the pads & protector are worn to insure his safety, when borrowing the water hose @ the gas station?
Who is doing Romney's advance work? The first rule of campaigning is make it look as if everyone in the world wants to hear you speak. Better to book a hall too small and have people standing in the corridors and outside clammoring to get in than to book a 65,000 seat stadium and have it look as if no one wanted to hear the speech.
There've been a number of examples where this year's crop of GOP candidates found themselves speaking to nearly empty, large rooms and airplane hangers. It cannot all be bad advance work: Not only are Republicans not excited about any of their candidates, it doesn't appear as if anyone else is, either.
Of course, it's hard for a blue collar town to get excited about an economic plan (Mitt's Tax Breaks 2.0?) that starts off by giving a $264,000 tax cut to the 1%, and turn out in large numbers to cheer its unveiling.
Too true -- his people should have booked a hall with a capacity of 800-900, and make the 300 extra people stand in the corridors and listen on extension speakers.
If you are speaking about your hometown, the venue should have a hometown feel. Maybe the stadium had memories, rock concerts and such, but to me, the viewer, I felt disengaged. The stadium was practically empty and it made me disinterested about what he had to say.
it's a pretty new stadium, and if michigan mitt has ever been there before (which i doubt), it was probably in a skybox for a super bowl.
I only watch this guy for the gaffs and goofs....someone please write a segment of the Romneys like the "Family Guy" or "American Dad"....i would be the number one fan....i want the copyrights.
It's not like the Republicans can't afford to have plenty of blunders like this. After all, you can bet that 100% of the 1%ers are registered to vote--I wonder what percentage of the 99%ers are?
Just in case you need to update your voter registration status:
http://www.vote411.org/registertovote.php
Also, just in case you might not be able to make it to the polls on election day, several states
offer "no escuse" voting by mail:
http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx
P.S. The website may be a little out of date because I know RI just changed their law to accept no
excuse mail ballots but they are not on the list yet. So if your state is not
listed, you might want to double check with your state's Secretary of State's
website
Here in Oregon, we have "vote-by-mail," whether we want it or not. Interestingly, here in Oregon, your ballot must be RECEIVED by 8 p.m. on Election Day -- postmarks do not count -- unlike other states that have conventional polling places and absentee ballots, where your ballot must be POST-MARKED by election day.
In Oregon, the website for voter registration is www.OregonVotes.org (contrary to what one would expect for a government website).
I, too, am an Oregonian who has been part of the vote by mail ONLY procedures for the last number of years. Despite people trying to debunk the system and searching for fraud, again and again they come up empty. The participation rate is over 50% for most of the races, and for the really important ones it is much higher than that. It really works, folks and I cannot understand why more states don't go the same route. Of course there is no market for voting machines here, but surely that could not be why other states don't try it, could it? If you are an un -registered Oregonian, just sign up on www.OregonVotes.org. It couldn't be more simple, or more effective.
Has anyone else noticed that it looks like almost everyone there is a white male in a suit? I've looked at a number of pictures from the event, and it looks more like an Upper Management Conference than a political rally.
I spotted the makeup of the "crowd," too. Who else besides wealthy white guys in suits and ties are actually interested in knowing how much Mitt wants to cut their taxes?
They must have been bused in from the financial district.
Jetted in.
The twelve hundred who could get a day off with pay or do not have to work, attended. It certainly was not the unemployed. They were at home using drugs and engaging in immoral sex.
You know, since us great unwashed are such lazy low lifes that would rather live on $200 a week than go get a job! We can get us a bunch of food stamps and buy liquor and cigarettes! (sarcasm off)
To me it's just an indication of his faith in money, its power to buy him the election. Nothing else could explain this level of ineptness.
President Obama's campaign staff must be beside themselves. They'll be facing either the total whackjob - Santorum, or Romney who can't seem to get out of his own way. Keep up the good work, Mr President!
During the beginning of the Marco Rubio VP story last night, when Rachel suggested that after all the awful anti-immigrant statements Romney has made, he must be planning something big to try to win back the Latino vote, my first thought was that assumed a level of competence in the Romney campaign that we've seen no evidence of yet. This story is yet another example.
Nothing will change unless the 99% voter gets involved at least to the extent that they educate themselves to what these guys in the lemming party really stand for. A recent poll showed that 50% of voters don't know who their representative is. That pretty much sums it up.
Mittens has done this so often I'm starting to think he really doesn't want the job of POTUS but won't drop out b/c it would be embarrassing. Sort of like wanting to break up with someone you've been dating for 8 years and b/c you don't want to just say it's over, you start acting like a total jerk so they kick you out.....
Maybe he doesn't want to run anymore, but he has to, because to leave the GOP to Santorum or Gingrich would be horrifying. Now he's running on responsibility. LOL
He could ask Newt for advise on the example you used. If he had the courage of his convictions, if he has any, he would say I can no longer attempt to sponsor or benefit from the bs this party is spreading.
First he would actual have to have convictions to standby.
@nomoremagicalthinking - are you serious? The unemployed are at home doing drugs and having immoral sex? You are a moron. I have a son who has no job and has gone to MANY interviews and filled out MANY applications - not sitting at home doing drugs. Your totally insane statement makes me wonder whether you are a sociopath.
me thinks it was sarcasm
I should have said this was an attempt at humor. I am sorry you did not see the humor in this since the GOP are trying to tie drug tests to unemployment benefits.
golferdawn, I'm pretty sure that original comment was tongue in cheek. Go back and check.
That statement sounded like sarcasm to me, I could be wrong. Making fun of the Republican Party's opinion of anyone who has to consider welfare, etc.
Those of us who frequent these pages more than some others recognize these memes for the sarcasm they are. Peace, brother. Some have said we need a sarcasm font.
nomoremagicalthinking forgot to add those six special, magic words:
"Not intended as a factual statement!"
For that matter, those should be appended to almost everything that people in the Greedy Old Party says!
Sarcasm.. I know; sometimes hard to tell these days because the right-wingers really do say stuff like that.
golferdawn - welcome to the nerd-snark page
It was a joke, about how the GOP old white guys think.
Just make sure to add #sarcasm or something to that effect so that people know next time. I got that it was a joke right away...but because this is text format and no one can hear the inflection in your voice it's not always easy to tell (especially for new comers).
I was at that Obama speech in Boise. The Obama team did it right. They draped off half of the college basketball arena. If that would have filled, it would have looked packed. As more and more people filed in they undraped the arena, opened up all the seating, and filled the place up. It WAS packed. Hundreds of people couldn't get in. It was amazing. Either way it worked, but Obama's team had a plan to make it work either way. Romney's team should have worked all the angles too.
I've become convinced that Rmoney has apparently decided he really doesn't want the nomination after all and he's doing a damn good job of sinking himself in a quicksand of his own making.
I disagree, I think he still wants the job. It's just that he and his staff all thought the nomination was his for the taking. Now that they have to work together for it, and work hard, they don't have the slightest frickin' clue how to do it. They know how to make other people work hard, but not work hard themselves. They know how to take something that still has some value and strip it and sell off any of that value until there's nothing left, pocketing fees all along the way. But they have no clue how take something with little value and give it MORE value, which pretty much sums up Romney, as a candidate and as a man.
Oh Mitt, just keep the gems coming please. Still laughing at the trees comment.
If the trees were better in Pennsylvania, maybe that dog would not have peed on Santorum, unless the dog was a Democrat
I was at the Obama speech in Boise Idaho, also, and it was done right. It was electric. That really describes it. The man was on fire that night. That was the night I got excited about voting for him. There have been many subsequent disappointments, but I always go back to that night in my mind. Somewhere in him, he must believe all those things he said. Nobody is that good an actor. I just hope we see more of the real, Presidential, Obama in his second term. People really need that guy, the one we saw in Boise Idaho that night. We need him to bear his convictions bravely, to fight for the things he finds important. Those are the reasons we voted him in, and it is why we will give him another chance.
Poor Mitt, he can't make any sense when he talks because he has that silver spoon in his mouth.
Bull’s-eye
The commenters here are brilliant - there is nothing more to add, except that this article had me literally rolling over my computer laughing hysterically. Thank you so much for sharing this.
I'm so old I remember when only Chicago welfare queens drove 2 Cadillacs
LOL! Me too!
Empty suit draws empty seats. Apropos.
Empty seats are people too.
I have a feeling that Mittens may have been against the government bail-out of our car industry because he wanted to get his own mitts on these companies in order to put his own well-perfected brand of "restructuring" on them. Why, he could have made billions for himself and wouldn't have to rely on Super PACS!