Watching the Romney Pivot

No sooner do I predict that Romney will alter his position on Iraq depending on - what else? - his political interest, than he goes and does exactly that. It's not much of a step, because he's still appealing to the base. But it's an early first distancing from the extreme positions of Giuliani and McCain on endless occupation of the Muslim Middle East:

"Our objective would not be a Korea-type setting with 25-50,000 troops on a near permanent basis remaining in bases in Iraq," the former Massachusetts governor told the Associated Press.

"I think we would hope to turn Iraq security over to their own military and their own security forces, and if presence in the region is important for us than we have other options that are nearby," Romney said.

He aims to please ... whoever he needs to.