Row after row of barren blue seats across the giant stadium made the crowd seem minuscule. He reiterated he would balance the budget by handing over many federal programmes, such as Medicare and distribution of food stamps, to states, who he claimed would handle them more efficiently. After ticking off his credentials as a businessman and a Washington outsider, he detailed his fleet of personal vehicles, trying to connect his love of cars with his love of Detroit. “I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually.” 
 
 Two Cadillac SRXs, to be precise. Once again, Twitter feeds and news blogs lighted up with Mr. Romney’s latest casual reference to his extraordinary wealth — remarks reminiscent of the playful $10,000 bet he tried to make with Rick Perry during a debate, and his remark about liking to fire those who provide services to him. Campaign officials said they were not responsible for the selection of Ford Field, and one adviser said he was “frustrated” that the speech was given in such a huge venue. The crowd’s polite applause was lost in the silence that filled the massive indoor stadium. 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. “I want to thank the folks at the Ford Field for making this space available for us — I guess we had a hard time finding a large enough place to meet, and this certainly is,” he said.
– Team Romney must want a do-over. Coverage of a much-hyped economic speech at Detroit's Ford Field yesterday is getting attention mainly for two things: His poorly received ad lib about owning a few Cadillacs and, more prominently, all those empty seats. A few examples: Washington Post: "Empty seats steal thunder," reads the headline. "At a moment when Romney wanted to project bigness and command, the optics of Ford Field did not help," notes the story. (It adds that he offered nothing much new in speech, because most of the details had been leaked days in advance.) New York Times: "Message lost in the empty seats," says its headline. Romney got "an unintended lesson about how poor visuals and errant words can derail a candidate’s message in this modern political news culture." Guardian: "Speech falls flat at near-empty stadium," reads the headline. And from the text: "The small crowd underlined again his inability to draw large numbers of supporters and to excite the conservative base." The irony: The Detroit Economic Club, not the Romney campaign, chose the venue, and only because the original location was too small to hold the 1,200 people who bought tickets.