Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security
The Note
By MARK HALPERIN, LISA TODOROVICH, and MARC AMBINDER
NEWS SUMMARY
Our complete and utter cluelessness about how this whole Social Security drama will end up is mirrored by (and reflected in) a laundry list of questions that will swirl in our heads all weekend.
If you can answer any of these, consider yourself possessed of even greater wisdom than Scott McClellan, more foresight than Joe Allbaugh, and even more capacity to channel GWB than Don Evans:
Does the Administration have a bicameral legislative timetable and/or strategy in mind, or are they being "flexible" (a.k.a., making it up as they go along)?
How much private (free!!!) polling is the White House seeing on Social Security?
Where and how are the Big Business TV ads that are going to be run in support of the effort being focus grouped?
Beyond AARP, who or what will put big money behind the anti-effort?
Does today's Wall Street Journal editorial warning the Administration against a Medicare-style compromise on Social Security presage what the White House can expect from the right if it starts to seek compromise to gain Democratic votes?
What tweaks (if any) have been made in the White House strategy in the last 48 hours, based on reacting to what has happened since SOTU?
Can we stop reading those repetitive, boring, and incomplete journalistic Q&As on how private accounts would work, blah blah blah, how the system is currently funded blah blah blah, what the President is proposing, blah blah blah?
If the White House (and Hill GOPers) are still going to insist on bipartisan support to make fundamental changes in the system, what will constitute "meaningful" bipartisan support?
Are there any intra-Administration private disagreements about how to proceed now?
Are Democrats — feeling their oats from finally scoring at least some points on the President and getting good media support for reform skepticism — resting fat and happy or thinking about a long-term political and policy strategy to save Social Security (and try to win some races)?
Is the politically vital fight to convince those in or near retirement that their benefits would not be changed at all one the White House can win and move on from, or will it require constant battle throughout this process?
How many White House reporters know that Vice President Cheney was on Rush Limbaugh yesterday helping to sell the Social Security plan? (Don't worry, Mike, he made no news, although he did refer to America's citizens as "voters," which we wonder about . . . ) |
