My colleague Ginger Gibson reports from Boston:

The Romney campaign pushed back at a recent string of polls that show President Obama gaining ground nationally.

At a briefing for reporters ahead of a four-day bus tour, a senior adviser tried to paint three recent polls as a blip and not something to be taken as a sign of serious problems for Mitt Romney. Reuters/Ipsos showed Obama with a 7-point lead, Fox News with a 9-point lead and CNN with a 7-point lead.

“Guys, it’s the middle of summer, it’s the doldrums, it's the middle of the Olympics,” the adviser who spoke on background said. “There has not been any national news, anything that would push these numbers from 3 to 9 points.”

The adviser pointed to no changes in Gallup or Rassmussen tracking numbers as evidence those polls were wrong.

“You've got to have something to precipitate that kind of sea change,” the adviser said. “The attitudes toward the economy, attitudes on right direction, wrong track haven't changed a bit. It hasn't changed, it is still the same as it was a month ago in terms of attitudes toward the economy.”

The adviser added, “If you're going to see change, we would have seen the change in Gallup and Rasmussen. Mark my words, there will be another couple of polls next week. People are not paying as much attention to this process. So I think the impact is just negligent.”

Asked about the large sums being spent on television advertisement in swing-state markets and if that could be driving the poll numbers, the adviser said it was still too early in the process.

“You look at the ads and it's basically pretty even in terms of spending on either side,” the adviser said. “I just don't think people are paying that much attention.”