Well, Here's Good News

It looks like we are safe from Bush's social security reform program.

Because Dick "Toe Sucker" Morris has pronounced it a lock to succeed, and Dick Morris' batting average? Let's just say he's so low he cannot even imagine hitting the mendoza line.

PRESIDENT Bush will succeed in his Social Security changes because he has skill fully drafted them in such a way that the only voters who are affected support his proposal — while the ones who oppose it won't be affected by it.

...

Yet the entire rest of the nation is likely to greet Bush's plan with relative equanimity. By avoiding the Reagan trap of seeking to cut benefits for existing retirees — and even exempting those now over 55 from any change — Bush has relegated the changes to the realm of theory for most voters. For most of these younger voters, retirement is a far-off thing and their confidence in their own ability to play the markets runs deep.

Democrats will rant and rave. But they won't find any mass constituency for their passion — and the program will pass.

Bush could still get shipwrecked by the cuts he proposes in benefits to avoid bankruptcy. But his privatization proposal should pass easily.