Video: Days before a pivotal primary, Mitt Romney highlighted his economic plan in what was billed as a major campaign speech delivered at a cavernous and largely empty football stadium in Detroit. (Feb. 24)
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. — When Mitt Romney arrived for a rally in this Detroit suburb, he needed a crew of roadies to unpack him. His campaign brought its own flags and its own chairs and its own stage and its own DJ, using a special “Romney-Michigan” playlist with Kid Rock and Kiss.
The Romney people even brought their own doughnuts: 35 dozen of a Detroit favorite called paczki (“punch-kee”), in flavors including strawberry, rose-hip and prune.
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Rick Santorum does not provide doughnuts.
He does not provide music, either. Or flags. Or chairs. At a Santorum rally in Holland, Mich. — a day earlier on the opposite side of this desperately contested state — the candidate brought a sweater vest. Three of his children: “Numbers two, three and four,” he said. And a banner that wouldn’t stay on the wall.
“What’s at stake in this election is the concept of limited government and of a free people building this great and just society,” Santorum said as his supporters stood or sat uncomfortably on the carpet. One woman keeled over after standing too long, prompting organizers and police to tend to her.
Two men. Two rallies. This week in Michigan, a pair of campaign events revealed the deep — and opposite — flaws that have kept either of the front-runners from running away with the GOP nomination.
Romney uses a grandiose campaign to deliver relatively modest ideas.
He rolls into town like a state fair. Then he comes out to talk about tax policy and “America the Beautiful.” That has attracted a crowd with sensible minivans and serious economic worries. But it doesn’t win over Republicans who want the president to be a moral spokesman instead of just a national CEO.
This instinct toward grand stagecraft backfired Friday, when Romney gave an economic speech at Detroit’s cavernous Ford Field. That venue outstripped even Romney’s impressive campaign machine: It wasn’t enough to camouflage a largely empty stadium.
Santorum, by contrast, uses a modest campaign to espouse deeply grandiose ideas.
His premise is that only he — a man who lacks the logistical wherewithal to rustle up snacks — can manage to rebuild the nuclear family and save freedom itself. That has made him a surprise front-runner. But it has done little to reassure the practical-minded part of the GOP base.
“Your values — your values — will return to the White House and to our country!” Santorum said when he finished his talk.
“I need your help!” Romney said when he finished his.
Santorum in Holland
The date of the Michigan primary — Feb. 28 — had been known for four months. But it wasn’t until last weekend that Santorum’s campaign contacted Hope College, a Christian school in Michigan’s conservative west. They needed a room for 200 people. And they needed it Monday.
Santorum’s people were both late and wrong. Their man was surging in Michigan — they needed a room for 400 people.
His supporters filled the college’s auditorium 90 minutes before the rally. Then they filled the overflow room, with a crowd like that on a parents’ weekend: young students and gray-haired couples. The audience watched two organizers try to hang up Santorum’s lone banner, which read “Made in America.”
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