Romney postpones his visit to Israel

Amid criticism that he may be spending too much time on a potential presidential bid, Governor Mitt Romney has postponed a planned trip to Israel, saying he wants to focus on his legislative agenda on Beacon Hill.

Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's director of communications, said yesterday that Romney has delayed plans to visit Israel at the end of the month as a guest of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the United States. The trip had been viewed as evidence of Romney's White House ambitions.

Fehrnstrom said Romney will reschedule the trip for sometime later this year or early next year.

Fehrnstrom attributed the change in plans to Romney's realization that he needs to focus on his legislative agenda this fall as lawmakers return to the State House after a summer break and resume this year's session, which will probably end in mid-November.

''Governor Romney has a busy agenda with job stimulus, education reform and health care on the table, and that is his first priority." Fehrnstrom said.

Romney has appeared concerned about Democrats' complaints that he has lost interest in Massachusetts. Some of them have said he is solely focused on a possible 2008 presidential campaign.

In recent weeks, Romney has insisted that he has not made up his mind as to whether he will seek reelection as governor next year. In addition, aides point out that he is still raising money for his state election account.

If he decides to run for president, it is almost certain that he will not run for another term as governor in 2006.

He has said he will announce his decision this fall, but many political insiders believe he has decided to seek the presidency.

Despite the postponement of the Israel trip, the governor continues to maintain an active out-of-state schedule, wooing potential Republican supporters of a presidential campaign.

Romney spent yesterday in New York City, where he addressed members of the Manhattan Institute, an influential conservative think tank, and later he made his pitch to some of the GOP's richest donors at a gathering called the Monday Meeting.

In contrast to speeches in places like Iowa and South Carolina, where social conservatives wield tremendous influence, Romney steered clear of hot-button issues such as gay marriage, abortion, and stem cell research in remarks to the New York Republicans, who tend to care more about fiscal matters.

At a speech sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, Romney never uttered the words gay or abortion, even as he argued that America's values are under attack. In previous speeches, the governor has raised the values issue as a launching pad to proclaim his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. Yesterday, however, he stuck to a far less controversial value: personal responsibility.

''If somebody is down . . . we'll do anything to help them get back on their feet," Romney said, referring to the Bay State's efforts to aid evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. ''But one thing we won't do is to say, 'For the rest of your life, you'll never have to work again; we'll take care of you,' because that will create an intoxication, a lifestyle that is deadening to them, to their children, and to our society."

Romney also emphasized his business background, arguing that the skills he learned in the corporate world helped him to close a $3 billion gap in the Massachusetts budget.

Several members of the audience came away impressed. Anne Dayton, who works for a pharmaceutical company, said a ''market-driven personality" like Romney might do wonders for a sluggish government bureaucracy.

Dayton said she was amazed at Romney's story about how his aides told him shortly after he took office that the Massachusetts deficit was not $1 billion, as he had thought when he ran for the office, but $3 billion.

Byron Wien, an investment strategist at Morgan Stanley, said he would like Romney to run for president and compared him to a politician who has attained legendary status in Gotham.

''It's sort of like Giuliani," Wien said of the former mayor of New York. ''When Giuliani came to New York, New York was viewed as ungovernable. He proved that it could be governed.

''When Romney took over in Massachusetts, it was hopeless," Wien said. ''The budget deficit would just get worse and worse. It was too liberal a state to really implement any reforms. But he did."

Fehrnstrom said yesterday that Romney will keep up his out-of-state travel schedule, including several one-day political events with key Republican groups.

He is traveling to Washington tomorrow to take part in a healthcare roundtable sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce. He will also give a speech to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative research organization.

He is spending the next two Saturdays attending Republican events in New Hampshire and Michigan.

Raphael Lewis of the Globe staff contributed to this report.