By Cameron Joseph - 02/24/12 01:07 PM ET - updated at 1:52 p.m
Mitt Romney spoke to several empty seats Friday in Detroit, in a speech that offered Democrats more fodder for their attacks and failed to deliver the major economic address his campaign promised.
Television cameras showed rows of empty chairs as Romney rehashed many of the policies and quips he'd used in previous speeches, made a few jokes that appeared to fall flat with the audience and said that his wife, Ann, drives "a couple of Cadillacs," which will likely give Democrats more ammunition for their depiction of him as rich and out of touch.
The former Massachusetts governor also repeated a line that has been the butt of jokes by late-night comedians — that Michigan has good-sized trees.
“This feels good, being back in Michigan,” he said. “The trees are the right height. The streets are just right.”
Romney then listed the various cars he and his wife own.
“I drive a Mustang and Chevy pickup truck,” he said. “Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all three [Detroit manufacturers] covered.”
Polls show Romney is back in the lead in his home state of Michigan, which is considered a must-win for him. The primary is Tuesday.
His speech was held at Detroit’s massive Ford Field, which holds tens of thousands of people, but only 1,000 or so attended. The campaign and the Detroit Economic Club, which hosted the event, sought to make the stadium look more full by putting the audience in one end zone of the football field and putting the cameras directly behind them.
But cameras showed empty chairs, and the Democratic National Committee blasted out photos that compared the crowd at Romney’s speech to the filled stadiums where then-candidate Barack Obama had campaign rallies in 2008.
The campaign didn’t bill the speech as a major rally and, according to reports, did not try to fill the stadium.
Romney even joked about the cavernous space.
“I want to thank Ford Field for making room for us,” he said to laughs from the crowd.
Most of Romney’s speech was focused on rehashing the tax policies he’d released earlier this week, and repeating attacks he’d made previously on President Obama. Romney promised to lower taxes and repeal Obama’s healthcare overhaul, comments he makes during nearly all of his speeches.
After an audience member asked Romney if he thought he’d have the best chance to beat Obama, Romney dismissed the other GOP candidates.
“I not only think I have the best chance, I think I have the only chance — maybe I’m overstating it a bit,” he said, chuckling awkwardly.
“That’s my family leading the applause,” he said quickly, although no one was clapping, then laughed again. No one appeared to laugh with him. “It’s always hard to defeat an incumbent president ... the only way to defeat him is to have someone who runs against him who is very different than he is, who can present a clear contrast. I have not spent my time in Washington.”
Abstinence-Only Sex Education Bill In Utah Prohibits Teaching Contraception
Video [embedded] Utah House passes abstinence-only sex ed bill
First Posted: 02/23/2012 2:34 pm Updated: 02/23/2012 2:47 pm
A bill requiring sex education classes to teach an abstinence-only curriculum moved closer to becoming a law in Utah Wednesday.
The state House passed HB 363 [ http://le.utah.gov/~2012/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0363.htm ] in a 45-28 vote following extensive debate. The bill -- which now goes on to the state Senate -- would lift the current requirement that all public schools must teach sex ed in grades 8 through 12. If the bill passes, districts would decide whether to offer sex ed classes that teach an abstinence-only curriculum, or not offer the course at all. Republican state Rep. Bill Wright sponsored the proposal.
"We've been culturally watered down to think we have to teach about sex, about having sex and how to get away with it, which is intellectually dishonest," Wright said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/utes/53570545-90/abstinence-allow-bill-education.html.csp ]. "Why don't we just be honest with them upfront that sex outside marriage is devastating?"
The version of the bill that passed through the state House Wednesday would prohibit any instruction in contraception, though teachers would be allowed to answer student questions about safe sex.
That provision is a departure from current law, which prohibits the advocacy of contraception and sexual activity outside of marriage. It also tightens the already-conservative regulations that sex ed curricula emphasize abstinence before marriage and fidelity after marriage and "personal skills that encourage individual choice of abstinence and fidelity [ http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE53A/htm/53A13_010100.htm ]."
Critics of the bill like Democratic state Rep. Carol Spackman said abstinence can't be taught without discussions of contraceptive failures, protecting yourself from sexually transmitted diseases. She adds that not teaching the consequences of sex among young people is "really immoral [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/utes/53570545-90/abstinence-allow-bill-education.html.csp ]," The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
"I would hope as we make this decision, that we won't think if we say abstinence only, that fairy dust will have been sprinkled and that teen pregnancy will no longer be a problem," Gibson said.
The Utah bill is one of a handful of proposals or regulations for American classrooms. A piece of legislation that passed through the Wisconsin state Senate last November requires schools to promote abstinence and marriage in sex ed classes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/wisconsin-senate-bill-requires-abstinence-sex-ed_n_1074499.html ] as the only way to prevent unplanned pregnancies and STDs, but doesn't bar lessons on contraception.
N. Georgia judge investigated for brandishing gun in court
Judge David E. Barrett File
By Bill Rankin The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2:50 p.m. Saturday, February 25, 2012
A North Georgia judge is being investigated for pulling out a handgun during a hearing this week as a woman testified about being an assault victim.
Lumpkin County Superior Court Judge David E. Barrett pulled out his pistol Wednesday not in anger, but out of frustration and to make "a poor rhetorical point," District Attorney Jeff Langley said Saturday. Langley, who was in the courtroom when it happened, said the Judicial Qualifications Commission has launched an investigation of the judge.
"It was totally inappropriate conduct for a courtroom," Langley said. The district attorney said that he approached the bench after Barrett pulled out his gun and told the judge to put his pistol away. The judge did so and the hearing continued, Langley said.
Barrett, chief judge of the Enotah Judicial Circuit, did not immediately respond to emails or to phone calls left at his office Saturday. Under Georgia law, judges are allowed to carry a concealed weapon on the bench, but it is a crime to point a pistol at another person when there is no justification to do so.
Jeff Davis, director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, said Saturday he could neither confirm nor deny whether the judicial watchdog agency was investigating Barrett.
The bizarre conduct occurred Wednesday during a bond hearing and a request for a temporary protective order against Scott Sugarman, a former Hall County sheriff's deputy who was recently arrested on a number of charges, including rape and aggravated assault with a handgun. Sugarman has pleaded not guilty.
The woman who filed the charges against Sugarman was on the witness stand and had testified Sugarman had abused her and, on one occasion, had put a gun to her head. During the latter part of her testimony, the woman was not being cooperative, Langley said.
Barrett told the woman she was "killing her case" and pulled out his gun and, feigning to offer it to her, said, "You might as well shoot your lawyer," Langley said.
At that point, Langley said, he approached the bench and told the judge to put the gun away.
The woman's lawyer, Andrea Conarro of Dahlonega, on Saturday described the scene, as Barrett swept the pistol across the courtroom, "as one of those slow motion kind of events."
"Later, as it sunk in, I was upset, and I felt like a tragedy had been created," she said, adding that by "tragedy" she meant what could happen to Barrett because of what he did.
Both Conarro and Langley said the woman, whose name is being withheld because The Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not disclose the names of victims of alleged sexual assault, did not appear to be traumatized.
"My client thought it was a test, that he was trying to see how she would respond, like it was a credibility determination," Conarro said.
Said Langley, "When it happened, I objected and sought to take control of the situation and terminate that conduct immediately."
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