Romney, Giuliani Change Tone on Bush's Iraq Buildup

[Janett_Reno]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20...NeHWB1x4iog9IF

For Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the difference between ``real'' and ``reasonable'' is the distance he's traveled on President George W. Bush's Iraq war policy.

In April, Romney said Bush's plan to send about 30,000 additional troops to Iraq had a ``real chance'' of succeeding. On July 26, he was more equivocal, saying in an interview: ``I don't give that a high probability, I give it a reasonable probability.''

With pessimism growing about the ability of a troop injection to overcome Iraq's sectarian violence, Romney, 60, and other Republicans who embraced the plan are gingerly laying the groundwork for a possible shift away from White House appeals to stay the course.

Romney, who isn't noted for jabs at Bush, is simply preparing for a call for a post-surge strategy, said Tom Rath, a senior adviser. ``That cannot be viewed as a sign of disloyalty or disrespect, but rather an inevitability in the political process.'' The issue, Rath said, ``is how far any candidate should go in separating from the president.''

Behind the semantic shift is a September day of reckoning for Bush's troop surge. That's when General David Petraeus will give Congress an assessment of the strategy, in the process putting a lens on Republican hopefuls and their plans for handling the conflict.

Romney isn't alone in opening a little space between himself and the administration on Iraq. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is also scouting for safer ground.