Obama, Romney step up communications pace

The most important voice in a presidential campaign is that of the candidate. But it is not the only important voice, as President Obama and Mitt Romney recently acknowledged.

In the past two weeks, both campaigns have had close advisers increase their day-to-day communication with reporters and various media outlets. It is a recognition that they cannot afford to miss a beat in a rapid-fire media environment fueled by Twitter and cable news programs.

The additions of the high-profile representatives signal that the campaign is moving into a new phase in which speed in responding is essential.

Jennifer Psaki, a former deputy communications director in Obama's White House, will join him on the trail, reprising a role she had in 2008. Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to Romney, will become a more frequent traveler and spokesman as he was in the campaign for the 2008 Republican nomination.

They will each face the following challenges:

PsakiCampaigning for re-election to the White House requires a delicate balance of the official and the political. When Obama has been on the road, his team has handled communications from afar, with reporters being directed to the campaign's Chicago headquarters.

Psaki's return will change that. Officials said she would work with the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, on most political trips, serving as the official voice of the campaign for the gaggle of reporters who accompany the president wherever he goes.

There is no shortage of people who speak for Obama's campaign. Frequent guests on television programs include David Axelrod, the senior adviser; Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager; and Robert Gibbs, the former White House press secretary.

But Psaki will often be the first to respond. Vivacious and well liked by the news media, she also has the respect of the president, who nearly offered her the press secretary job after Gibbs left last year.

This week, Obama will travel to Iowa and Virginia, two swing states where the economy is doing better than the rest of the nation. Expect to see Psaki remind reporters of that frequently as the president makes the case to voters that his policies are working, even if it is more slowly than people want.

MaddenThe challenge for Romney is to find a way to maintain the focus of his campaign despite the distractions that can sometimes knock a candidate off message. Madden's arrival is part of that effort.

The fight over the health care law is a good example. When the Supreme Court issued its ruling upholding the law, Romney's campaign got tripped up twice -- first when a press aide was put on camera, and later when a senior adviser contradicted the message of other Republican officials by saying Obama's health care mandate was not a tax.

Like Psaki, Madden is well known and well liked by the press and has deep ties to senior campaign staff members and the Republican leadership. (He served as press secretary for Rep. John Boehner when Republicans were in the minority in the House.) He also brags about having perfect hair for television.

His skills will be put to the test this week.

On Wednesday, Romney will give a speech to the NAACP, a sensitive venue for a Republican presidential candidate running against the first black president.