Romney makes midcourse communications correction
(CBS News) In a sign that Mitt Romney's campaign team plans to adjust following growing criticism from fellow Republicans, CBS News has learned that Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden will soon be taking on a larger and more visible role within the campaign.
Sources tell CBS News that Madden will be spending more time on the road with Romney and is likely to become a more public presence as a TV spokesperson for the candidate. He will hit the road with Romney next week, following Romney's New Hampshire vacation.
This move to make Madden a more public face of the campaign comes a week after fellow senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom committed a messaging misstep, which resulted in Romney having to walk back those comments.
Fehrnstrom said in an interview on MSNBC last week that Romney believed the individual mandate in President Obama's health care law was a "penalty", not a "tax," contrary to the line Republicans had taken after the Supreme Court upheld the law. As a result, Romney sat down with CBS News' Jan Crawford in the middle of his Fourth of July vacation to state unequivocally that he believes the mandate is a "tax."
Romney campaign sources stress this isn't a campaign shakeup but it's a move to give Madden more "bandwidth and additional responsibilities."
Madden has a long history with Romney, having worked very closely with him as his national press secretary during Romney's 2008 presidential bid.
Meantime, the campaign is looking ahead and suggests that the economy will be topic number one moving forward.
"Today's job numbers will set the frame for the rest of the campaign," said one adviser. "People are just starting to tune in and put their barbecue sets away."
