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Scott Olson / Getty Images
DETROIT, MI - FEBRUARY 24: Members of the Detroit Economic club gather to hear a speech by Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
DETROIT -- Days after debuting a souped-up economic plan calling for across-the-board tax cuts, Mitt Romney expanded on his vision here today in a speech at a largely empty football stadium.
Before some 1,200 members and guests of the Detroit Economic Club seated between the end zone and 30-yard line at Detroit's Ford Field, Romney described plans to eliminate subsidies to Amtrak and Planned Parenthood, as well as send programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies back to the states.
Romney also said his plans for reforming Medicare -- including offering supports for private options instead of the traditional single-payer system -- would begin in 2022, and that eligibility requirements would rise one month each year, and be indexed to longevity.
Romney's speech -- a mix of a few new details on the plan he rolled out Wednesday, stump speech staples, and anecdotes reflecting his love of his home state -- was originally intended to be given in a hotel ballroom. But when tickets sold out in less than an hour, a larger venue was needed.
The cavernous, 65,000 seat Ford Field was selected by the Economic Club, but couldn't possibly be filled. The result: tens of thousands of empty seats and a space so large it swallowed applause altogether.
The candidate joked about the venue at the beginning of his remarks.
"I guess we had a hard time finding a large enough place to meet and this ... certainly is," he said.
Romney also undercut his economic message by fumbling an attempt to appeal to Michiganders with a bit of personal detail about his love of cars. He revealed that his wife owns a "couple" of pricey Cadillacs SRX's -- a comment that could give his rivals and Democrats ammunition to portray the multi-millionaire Romney as being out of touch.
"It just feels good, being back in Michigan. You know the trees are the right height, the streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. And I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered," he said.
*** UPDATE *** Regarding the optics of Romney giving a speech to a largely empty stadium, a Romney official gave this response to NBC's Peter Alexander:
"Beth Chappell -CEO of Detroit Economic Club just now spoke with ABC and told them that the campaign had nothing to do with venue choice...they typically use the atrium at Ford Field as a venue for their events, but due to the size of the crowd there were security concerns with the atrium so they moved it to the field. Once they moved the campaign worked on logistics but the campaign had nothing to do with this."
The president of the Detroit Economic Club also responded:
"I just heard that there is some confusion in the media regarding the selection of today's venue. That is very disappointing after such a terrific meeting. As I said in my remarks today, we sold out the previous venue in 90 minutes and were delighted that Ford Field was available and could accommodate the DEC. Further, we thought it a wonderful Detroit landmark to host this nationally broadcast meeting."
"The original plan was to host the Romney meeting in the atrium, which is where we host DEC meetings when at Ford Field. During our walk through with the security team there were further issues raised due to the size of the crowd so we moved the event to the field. Had we followed our normal plan in the atrium, the football field would not have been visible - and the room would have been packed."
Leave a Comment:
Empty suit gets empty seats.
1. Who did they expect to come to this stadium?
2. If this is Romney's example of how would run the country, it takes the wind out of his yacht.
Romney needs to fire his campaign staff. This is absolutely embarrassing for a candidate.Shouldn't be too hard for him. He should fire himself as well.
The strategy of mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo fails. To have many, many candidates, each having one or two aspects of their overall plan is splitting the party. They need to have a single candidate that has all of their policies. That candidate would be identical to the bushman.
In this day of radio and television, there is little need to fight the traffic. Good talk Romney! You have some great ideas! Romney 2012!
sdavis,
How about the Internet and the Social Network? Glad your trailer park finally got connected, but sheesh!
How outdated can you be, TeaPub???
In a city the size of Detroit, in his "home state", that's as big a crowd interested in him that he could generate? That's seriously telling. The GOP is catering to the wealthy 1%. Most Republicans aren't in the 1%. They're going to be voting Democrat or abstaining. Even the Republicans recognize that President Obama is better than anyone the GOP has put forth since Regan. They're tired of liars who betray the American public in favor of the millionaires and billionaires. The upcoming election is going to be a rote. Any Republican remaining in any office over the next few years will be a huge exception. The GOP doesn't represent the American public. They don't even represent the majority of Republicans, and that's becoming more and more obvious every day. They need to be sent the message. Arrogence and greed are not American core values, just those of the GOP leadership, and the party is going to suffer for it.
What's the big deal--he was having a few close friends over to his house, and it got a little crowded.
You sheep just don't think for yourselves. There are tons of companies and banks that buy up failing companies. They then break them into pieces making them easier to sell off. They are broken into sections that other companies will buy and usually once again make profitable. At least he wasn't asking for bailout funds to keep failing companies alive and then watching them fail anyway like your King Obama likes to do. Romney doesn't bankrupt anyone. Read about it for yourselves instead of letting the Obama paid media lead you to the trough. Your Lord God gave you a brain. Use the darned thing will ya???
patwick,
(your moniker sounds a bit gay...but I'm OK with that).
So you like the Romney style of Corporate Destruction? People lose jobs, while Bain reaps the profits???
Patwick, you're making the 1% argument for us here on the left, even if you don't realize it!!
Failing companies like GM? Oh wait. That's a success story. Let's exclude that one from the discussion because it doesn't fit your agenda. 7 bills in profits. Whoo doggy!
Hey clapper, you talking about Guvment Motors? 7 bil in profits eh? Where's my dividend check? We all own it right? Maybe it got lost in the mail - or maybe they remembered they owe the Guvment more than that. I think they should hire a new accountant not recommended by Obama
Maybe the accountant for the Bush administration that summoned the McCain and Obama teams to the White House in October of 2008 asking them what the fock we should do about the impending auto disaster since the Bush administration had no clue as to what to do about the focking problem. "Oh just let the entire industry go into BANKRUPTCY was the focking Limbaugh's of the world saying. Great focking experiment in an economics class at Georgetown University, a questionable call when you have 1.5 million employees directly or indirectly having their lives floating on that decision. Go vote for your focking Romney and sit an empty stadium with 400 of your brainwashed Romney followers on Nov. 2012
The title of the article shows huge bias and unprofessional journalism.
That campaign wasn't attempting to fill the stadium venue. They just needed a venue. 1,200 people isn't a small number (but huge compared to a facility rated onto to hole 250, or tiny in one rated for 65,000).
Listle, every president blabs in front of maybe 10-15 people in TV or radio addresses. The media may say "millions were the audiience," but unless they truly took a census to find out who actually watched or listened (not a Nielsen's projection of those who probably watched), the fact Romney was in a stadium or an outhouse makes no difference to teh public announcement of this plan.
Come on...in this big city they couldn't find any where else...you believe that crap if you want too....
It looks pretty pathetic, Romney has no selling points, except his wife is hot. And she shows more passion and want to than he does
So fixed....so bought.....so sad......SOME FRONT RUNNER!!!! LMAO!!!!!
Stop ,
Maybe YOU should stop your BS. Would you book your local fave bar band into a facility that holds 65,000???
Face up to it...the GOP Clown Car is LOST. Off of the track, got a wheel in the ditch, with no tow truck in sight.
Wow. And MSNBC deems this to be news.
Talk about slant...
Wow.
What a joke.... The article, with the picture, says 1,200 people were at this fiasco speech...
I took the picture, downloaded and resized it and physically counted the number of individuals in that picture...
There are less than 400 people in that picture, no-where near 1,200...
In short, this howdy-doody romney speech was a bust... a virtual no-show event....
romney is toast, burnt, fizzled and yesterday's old news!!
This, despite over 5 years of constant campaigning, and mega-miillions spent, in ratios of up to typically 5:1 against his competition -- trying to buy this t-goper clown of the year, nomination..., YET, less than 400 people showed up in a FOOTBALL STADIUM (and they were probably given the tickets)????
LMAO!!!
Wow you have alot of time on your hands. You need to get out more often.
1,200 people just wanted to see the Super Bowl and showed up late.
The "Government/Ruling Class" (Crony Capitalism) is what's killing America. They're giving us promises based on the money that they take from us and through their Infinite Wisdom know how better to spend than us. They continue to dig us further into debt in the process--all for votes.
The Government/Ruling Class just knows better. The Government/Ruling Class says so, therefore it must be true (...and their buddies need a tax break and the next round of tax dollars.)
BOTH political parties are guilty of this.
Love all of the Republican losers, all Kooks. Nothing to offer from for the Right Wing Yabbos who have nothing to offer but their single issue agendas. That is especially true for the religious right. Unable to compromise, have a vision for all in the U.S., other than their myopia. Mind your own effing business, live your own life as you see fit and quit trying to stuff your beliefs down everyone else's throats. Whenever politics and religion mix, people get hurt, die and get suppressed and oppressed. The magic of the U.S. is its ability to take in and accept. That lesson has been so lost.
Awwww Thats sad.
Sadly, if it had been Sarah the stadium would have been full, even for MI.
yep, full of losers.
You are so right, that is funny, but she would get more Republican idiots out than he would
The reason why nobody was there is because the people who support conservatives have to work. If it was Obama then the stadium would be packed. Remember only the rich are Republican thats why the Libs want to tax them so much. So why are all you people complaining if people weren't there. If they were there then they wouldn't be working and all of Obama supporters wouldn't get their food stamps.
Suppose I rented an 80,000 seat stadium and almost nobody came? I had more attendees at my bar mitzvah than he did at a well-funded political rally. Maybe if he had door prizes or baseball bats or cool caps there would have been more people. Just maybe.
I really don't care for Romney, but, come on, did you expect the stadium to be packed? It wouldn't have been packed if all the hopefuls had been there!
It's what November 2012 will look like at about 10pm first Tuesday. I take that back, 9pm
Hey Mitt. How does the dog carrier fit on the roof of your Mustang, pick up and Cadillacs? Oh that's right, your dog probably had enough sense to run away. Too bad your "followers" don't!
Well... I'm happy to see his message IS getting out to the general public... lol. Seems he's putting MORE & MORE people to sleep with each passing day... lol. Mitt... just concentrate on becoming a god and leave the Presidency to someone who really cares about us. It's time to read the writing on the wall bro'... NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
America, under the Obama reign, a country without a leader, $5 a gallon gasoline, unemployment up, not down as being touted, endless government growth, entitlements that are not paid for, the Federal Debt Growing at such a rapid pace that the fiscal end is near for the US, and those are the SOLUTIONS, according to the left.
Just Amazin!
Dear Mike, stay tuned to Fox for more Republitard talking points! Unemployment is on its way down. Gas was getting cheaper until last week. Manufacturing is returning. We shut down Bush's war, much to Cheney and Haliburton's chagrin. The Federal debt is growing at a slower pace than when your buddy George and Dickhd. were in charge. Your boys said that their job #1 was creating jobs and they haven't done a thing worth mentioning to create one, unless it involved blackmailing the rest of America for more tax cuts for the rich or making the oil companies or stock brokers richer.
Want solutions? Get rid of the Republicans. They are all a bunch of corporate whores-bought and paid for. Just ask your five conservative Supreme Court whores. One thing that hasn't changed is people of your political stripe are continuing to get stupider all the time! Have a good nigh Mikey!
,PeoriaGuy
What world are you living in?
Obama (and America) can not run on his record.
When one compares to where we in the US were in 2008, and where we in the US are now under OBAMA'S POLICIES, Obama's Administration is a complete FAILURE, COMPLETE!
America has become a WELFARE SOCIETY, can't pay the bill for the entitlements, with no hope!
America became a welfare state thanks to George W and his stupid war that we will be paying for years!!! Bush & Cheney went to war so that their cronies could profit off the war and in the end it left us high and dry so don't blame Obama for the mess that Bush and Cheney left.
Democrats did you ever wonder why Obama's audience is always sitting behind him? Think about it!
Because the house was already packed in front of Obama and there wasn't room anywhere else in the place to sit or stand! I think Mitt should have used some of his quarter billion to pay people to attend his little rally! Would have looked good for the cameras!