In Which I Feel Bad for Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney gave a speech today at Detroit's Ford Field, and the optics are woefully bad for the candidate. Liberal news outlets are picking this up as yet another example of Mr. Romney's glaring enthusiasm gap.

Now, Mr. Romney's alleged inability to fire up conservative voters has been well documented, but I think this dog ain't barking. According to the Detroit Free Press, the Romney campaign and the Detroit Economics Club jointly organized the event, and were quite cognizant on the optics issue. The only reason they did not use a smaller venue was that it sold out:

They scrapped three earlier plans: one to have Romney stand in the end zone, speaking up to guests seated in the stands; another to have him on the sidelines near midfield, speaking to guests seated in the stadium's middle sections, and an initial plan to hold the event at the Westin Book Cadillac, which quickly became oversold. (emphasis mine - JMG)

I mention this only because it is unfortunate how we're more focused on how Mitt Romney looks, rather than what he's saying.

h/t TPM