For a campaign that prides itself on structural excellence which, they claim, provides them with an equivalent capability to take on Obama, they sure did a big stupid with this optic.  You can bet your last dollar Team Obama was smiling with glee and the endless possibilities Romney has provided.  Less than 1,000 people?   Seriously…. c’mon, he couldn’t even fill the Red Zone.

(Guardian) Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney‘s much-heralded economic speech flopped Friday, overshadowed by a gaffe over luxury Cadillacs and his choice of an over-ambitious venue, the Detroit Lions’ football field.

Romney opened himself up to derision for choosing a 70,000-seat stadium which attracted just over 1,000 people, many of them school children bussed in to help fill out the crowd, tucked into a corner of the astro-turf pitch.

The small crowd underlined again his inability to draw large numbers of supporters and to excite the conservative base.

The speech too turned out to be a flop. Having been hyped by his campaign staff all week, Romney had little new to say, particulary about how he planned to pay for the 20% tax cuts he announced earlier in the week.

It will be the picture of the near-empty stadium, contrasting with a much fuller one when Barack Obama was campaigning in February 2008, that will be remembered. (read more)