Jonathan Martin reports on Mitt Romney's speech yesterday at the Mackinac Leadership conference this weekend:

In a lunchtime speech to over a thousand Michigan Republicans gathered here for a retreat, Romney cast himself as a "Republican for change" and told the faithful in a marked denunciation of his own party that the Washington branch of the GOP has lost its way.

"I think we'd have to admit that the blame doesn't all belong to the other party," Romney said of the unanswered challenges of recent years. "We Republicans have to put our own house in order. We can't be like Democrats -- the party of big spenders. We can't pretend that our border is secure from illegal immigration. We can't have ethical standards that are the punch line for Jay Leno. When Republicans act like Democrats, America loses."

Romney was reading from a teleprompter and punctuated his statement with emphasis -- clearly indicating that it was meant for applause. But there was none.

A bit later Martin says there was "an awkward moment when one person began to clap but nobody else in the crowd joined."

That doesn't sound like a very impressive showing, especially for a candidate who is the state's favorite son.