Team Romney Sees Debates as Chance For Campaign Reset

At the Los Angeles Times, "Mitt Romney, struggling, makes a new effort to connect"

As Mitt Romney prepares for his pivotal first debate against President Obama, his campaign is struggling to regain its footing. By recalibrating his message and increasing his interactions with reporters, Romney is trying to reignite his presidential bid at a critical time, with just over a month until election day and early voting underway in many key swing states.

He is still struggling to connect with voters, a challenge that has confronted him since the primaries. And he has often spent more time fundraising than campaigning in battleground states, where recent polling shows Obama gaining ground.

A campaign that once gloated about expanding the electoral map for Republicans is now fiercely fighting to hang on to states that were once considered favorable territory for the GOP nominee, such as North Carolina.

Romney continues to be dogged by the release of a secretly taped video that shows him denigrating nearly half the population, forcing him to play up his empathy. And despite repeated pledges by his campaign to offer specifics, even some supporters say he is too vague about his plans. All this is why political experts say Wednesday's debate is so crucial.

"Mitt Romney has been defined by the Obama campaign over the course of the summer, and over the last couple weeks, by a series of mistakes. In the debates there's an opportunity to reset that because there's a massive audience share and Mitt Romney needs to go in there and needs to win," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who worked for Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign.

Despite unhappiness with Obama among some voters, Romney has struggled to convince the nation that he would be a better president. His advisors have tried in recent weeks to blend his economic message with a sharper critique of the president's foreign policy.

Russ Schriefer, a top Romney strategist, said the candidate was striving to strike a balance between responding to current events and driving a broader message about what four more years of an Obama presidency would mean for taxes, healthcare and the federal debt, an issue that has particular resonance for independents.

"What we'll be doing over the next five weeks is contrasting [Romney's and Obama's] views very specifically," he said.

It's been a rough few weeks. The debates will be crucial for Romney.