A GOP operative who won plaudits for bolstering Mitt Romney’s recent debate performances is not being retained by the front-runner’s campaign, an apparent victim of internal tensions over staff receiving too much credit for the candidate’s comeback, POLITICO has learned. 
 
 Brett O’Donnell, a former top aide to Michele Bachmann, has been paid for his work assisting Romney in the crucial Florida debates but was not offered a formal role with the campaign as he expected, according to Republican sources familiar with the situation. 
 
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 After O’Donnell was identified last week as advising Romney and then highlighted in subsequent news accounts as being one of the reasons behind the former Massachusetts governor’s improved debate performances, Romney campaign officials grew uneasy. 
 
 O’Donnell received phone calls late last week from two Romney advisers — campaign manager Matt Rhoades and informal adviser Charlie Black — where it was made clear that there was severe discomfort about how his role was being portrayed in the media and that he ought to tread lightly. 
 
 Then on Saturday, when The New York Times posted a Sunday story online detailing how Romney’s campaign targeted Newt Gingrich in Florida that again mentioned O’Donnell’s role with the debates, chief Romney strategist Stuart Stevens called O’Donnell. Stevens asked the adviser to contact Jim Rutenberg, one of the Times reporters who wrote the piece, and request that the reporter change the depiction of O’Donnell’s role in what would become a front-page article, according to Republican sources. 
 
 The Times altered some of the language relating to O’Donnell in the final story — he was mentioned briefly as only a “debate adviser” — but O’Donnell’s name was not removed. O’Donnell was not quoted in the story. 
 
 Reached on the phone by POLITICO Friday, O’Donnell declined to comment. 
 
 Stevens would only say: “I have a great deal of respect for Brett and would welcome the opportunity to work together again down on the road.” 
 
 But, according to the Romney campaign last week, O’Donnell was already part of the team. 
 
 A former Liberty University debate coach, O’Donnell worked for John McCain’s 2008 campaign and was a senior aide to Bachmann up until her withdrawal from the campaign last month. He’s well-regarded in the Republican operative world and is not generally known as a self-promoter. 
 
 Now, though, sources familiar with his thinking say he feels like he has become the fall guy after both senior aides and Romney himself expressed ire about the grab for credit generally and the much-buzzed-about Sunday Times story specifically. 
 
 O’Donnell’s understanding was that, following the Florida primary this past Tuesday, he would be tendered a formal offer to advise Romney on debates going forward. 
 
 But GOP sources say he was abruptly informed on Wednesday that he would be paid for his work to date but would not retained in any formal capacity. 
 
 The internal machinations come as Romney has reasserted himself as the GOP front-runner, but also as the buttoned-down candidate and Rhoades — the equally disciplined and leak-despising campaign manager — have grown uneasy about the focus on the tactics employed in the comeback. 
 
 Any presidential campaign places a high demand on loyalty to the principal, but the Boston high command is especially deferential to the man aides call “the gov.” 
 
 Much like President Obama’s campaign and the White House, Romneyworld prides itself on running a tight ship, minimizing unplanned leaks and keeping any staff drama to a minimum. ||||| 5 years ago 
 
 (CNN) - Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has parted ways with debate coach Brett O'Donnell, a Romney campaign source confirmed Friday. 
 
 O'Donnell, a former Michele Bachmann adviser who also did debate prep sessions with John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008, was given credit in several media reports as the man behind Romney's impressive back-to-back debate performances in Florida. 
 
 
 
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 But a source inside the campaign told CNN Friday that O'Donnell's role "was vastly overblown." 
 
 O'Donnell was present in the spin room after the CNN debate in Jacksonville giving credit to Romney for his preparation and work habits. 
 
 That night, O'Donnell told CNN that Romney realized after his South Carolina primary loss that he needed to "make some changes strategically" in his onstage message. 
 
 "He knew he had to engage Newt more and be better on a couple of answers," O'Donnell explained. "He worked really hard to get them right, and tonight I saw a vast improvement." 
 
 But in the days after the Florida debates, some Romney advisers groused privately that O'Donnell was being given too much credit for Romney's performances, and proactively emailed reporters to downplay his role in the campaign. 
 
 O'Donnell did not respond to an email seeking comment. 
 
 - CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby contributed to this report. 
 
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 Gingrich to challenge Florida delegates ||||| After weeks of anticipatory news coverage, breathless spin and counter-spin from both sides aiming to lower expectations for their own guy, and occasional off-cue moments from surrogates, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will take the stage in Denver today for the first of three debates. 
 
 With polls showing Obama with a slight lead nationally, and a bigger lead in swing states, Romney needs to deliver tonight and score something of a win if he wants to change the race’s arc. That’s not to say it will be the GOP nominee’s only chance to shine, but it will be an important one. For Romney, tonight is the chance to let viewers see him differently. 
 
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 reset Tonight's debate: What not to do 
 
 (See also: Complete coverage of the Colorado presidential debate) 
 
 Below, POLITICO’s five things to watch for: 
 
 1. Can Romney win the first half-hour? 
 
 There was the strong, aggressive Romney that chewed up and spat out Newt Gingrich at the moments he most needed a game-changer in the Republican primaries. 
 
 There was the churlish Romney who bet Rick Perry $10,000. And there was also the rules-abiding Romney, who called for help from moderator Anderson Cooper when Perry ate up too much time in one of the face-offs. 
 
 Romney is getting conflicting advice on which debate personality should show up. He has twice debated a Democrat one on one — Ted Kennedy in 1994, where the results were not great, and with Shannon O’Brien, where a good debate showing helped him become Massachusetts governor. 
 
 Romney’s got a difficult task, which is to be aggressive without attacking the president, who has high personal approval ratings too fiercely. He has to seem tough but also presidential, assertive but not snide. He has to accuse Obama of not being honest with voters, without sounding shrill. 
 
 Winning over voters in a popularity contest is never going to be easy for the GOP nominee, but if he can demonstrate the ability to be president — to convince voters it’s a role he can play, and seem serious and substantive — he will go a ways toward his goal of changing the race’s current arc. 
 
 Tonight will go the furthest toward showing whether Romney recognizes the race is in its final stages, and that either political victory or political death is nigh. 
 
 Like Obama, Romney can seem smug and prickly when challenged. He needs to go in relaxed, without memorizing his briefing book to the point of paralysis. Romney will try to trip up the president, but he needs to be as nimble as possible. Also like Obama, Romney is a good but not expert debater. He can make a mistake in a weak or unpredictable moment. And the fact that he started laying out a few new policy statements 48 hours before the debate suggests he knows tough questions are coming. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Mitt, be nimble) 
 
 The first half hour of a presidential debate tends to be when the tone is set. Romney needs to score points, quick and early. The good news for Romney is that reporters love a comeback story, which is only bolstering his chances of decent coverage the next day. 
 
 2. How hard will Obama attack? 
 
 The president does not tend to fare as well going negative. But he has to attack. 
 
 Fact one: Obama’s surge against Romney was powered by a relentless, pounding summertime assault — led by surrogates and staff for the most part — on his challenger’s fitness to lead and capacity to comprehend the struggles of regular working people. 
 
 Fact Two: Obama’s surge was also fueled by a huge lead over Romney on personal approval — and that edge could disappear if he appears too negative tonight. 
 
 Reconciling those two realities — how to seem civil while trashing Romney to his face — is probably the biggest challenge facing the incumbent Wednesday. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: 10 great debate moments) 
 
 Obama's genius in 2008 was his ability to slam his opponents and their top surrogates through the use of code words, casting John McCain and Bill Clinton as icons of a bygone era, who needed to be dispatched into dignified retirement. But this is a different election — and incumbents, especially ones with as little margin for error as Obama — can’t afford to be subtle.
– Today's lesson in the stroking of political egos: Team Romney has dropped newly added debate coach Brett O'Donnell, the man widely credited with engineering Romney's more aggressive (and successful) approach in the last debate, reports Politico. The problem? O'Donnell had been getting too much credit for the debate turnaround, and that was ruffling feathers within the campaign, GOP sources tell the website. Another insider tells much the same to CNN, calling O'Donnell's role "vastly overblown." The next scheduled debate isn't until Feb. 22.