How Ann and Tagg Romney convinced the campaign to go big

What followed was a family intervention. The candidate’s family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee — a “let Mitt be Mitt” approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew…

One result was Monday’s foreign policy speech at Virginia Military Institute. Aides are now considering following it up with a speech on jobs and the economy, and then one on debt and spending. Another one on energy has also been discussed. The economic speech is designed as a high-profile pushback to the Obama campaign’s attacks. One adviser, invoking the famous Bob Dole quote from 1988, said the gist will be: “Stop lying about my record.”’…

Behind the scenes, the high command has changed with the candidate. Senior adviser Ed Gillespie, for instance, has rising responsibility for the campaign’s broad message. Campaign manager Matt Rhoades is commanding the stagecraft, the insiders said. And Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), originally brought in as Romney’s debate sparring partner, has become a close and trusted adviser.

But the biggest change in the ecology, according to the insiders, is the more assertive role of Tagg Romney, who has been “making sure that his father’s environment is such that he’s relaxed when he goes up to do things, and making sure that he’s not over-programmed, and is protected from the cacophony of advice,” a family friend said.