Who thought THAT was a good idea?

I cannot for the life of me understand why he did it, but when Mitt Romney came to Detroit today, he chose the 65,000-seat Ford Field. It was such a bizarre choice that even the Detroit Free Press wrote about it.

Romney camp’s game plan: Make Ford Field look crowded

It won’t be hard to fit 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club into 65,000-seat Ford Field for today’s speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. It won’t be hard to fit 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club into 65,000-seat Ford Field for today’s speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. What will be hard is making it look like Romney isn’t speaking to a nearly empty stadium.

Click through to their article for a priceless photo of the gigantic stadium with the teeny tiny little stage set up in the middle of it.

Here’s a video taken during his speech:

This screencap tells the story:

By the way, they set up 1,200 seats and they are clearly nowhere near full. I’d put that crowd at 800 tops.

Mitt Romney may have scads of money to spend and a huge staff but they don’t appear to have the common sense goddess gave a gnat about optics. Putting your candidate in a cavernous venue that makes them look like a tiny spec talking to a smattering of people is not particularly flattering.

Especially when President Obama draws crowds like this one from last September in the same city:

Labor union members from the UAW and elsewhere welcomed Mitt Romney to Detroit by placing cars with large letters in the window on top of a nearby parking structure spelling out the phrase “Romney: ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt'”.

About 200 union members from the UAW and other unions gathered this morning on the roof of the GEM & Century Theaters parking garage in Detroit to protest against Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and is position on the automotive industry. With chants of “Thank you Obama,” and “Don’t bet against American Workers,” the union members wanted to send a message to Romney in advance of his speech today at Ford Field, which is across the street from the GEM. “We all would have been out of a job if it were not for who?” UAW President Bob King shouted into a megaphone. “Obama,” the crowd responded. The UAW lined up American made cars on the roof of the parking garage with letters on each car that said “Romney: ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt,” which recalls the headline of a New York Times op-ed Romney wrote in 2008.

Here are a couple of Twitter pics from DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse (used with permission):