Mitt Romney takes his bus-tour of swing states to Florida on Monday, but without his new leading man, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who instead will be in Iowa.
Huh?
When the Romney camp announced that he would be going on this bus tour, rumors swirled that his VP selection was near, since it would make a lot of sense for Romney to tour with his new running mate (a la Bill Clinton-Al Gore in 1992) with a new boost of energy.
Ryan was with Romney throughout the weekend in campaign stops in Virginia and North Carolina, but curiously will not travel with the presidential candidate when the tour hits Orlando and Miami.
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden tells CBS News that Ryan won't be in Florida on Monday, but that has nothing to do with his controversial budget proposals which include a serious revamping of Medicare, where Ryan has proposed to give future Medicare beneficiaries the opportunity to opt into a system of subsidized, private insurance plans.
"This has more to do with expanding our bandwidth," he said. "Governor Romney is going to be talking about the issues that are important to Floridians. And I think Congressman Ryan's going to be able to be down in Florida during this campaign and will be doing the same, at some point."