Bush's Social Security talks stick to script

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It sounded as if all of Graceland were clamoring for President Bush's plan to restructure Social Security.

The mostly white audience in this mostly black Southern city clapped wildly as Bush took what he called the "presidential roadshow" to its 14th state Friday. He was greeted like Elvis — adoring fans hooting and hollering, and hanging on his every word.

The few dissenting voices in the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts were silenced quickly or escorted out by security. One woman with a soft voice but firm opposition to Bush was asked to leave, even though her protests barely were audible beyond her section in the back corner of the auditorium. The carefully screened panelists spoke admiringly about Bush, his ideas, his "bold" leadership on Social Security.

If the presentations sound well-rehearsed, it's because they often are. The guests at these "Oprah"-style conversations trumpet the very points Bush wants to make. Seniors on stage express confidence that Bush's plan to create private investment accounts would not eat into promised benefits, and the granddaughter of one spoke hopefully Friday of a richer retirement if the president prevails.

These meticulously staged "conversations on Social Security," as they are called, replicate a strategy that Bush used to great effect on the campaign trail.

Narrow audience targeted

Instead of appealing to his political base in hopes of driving up turnout, though, Bush this time is targeting a far narrower audience of swing voters in the Senate — centrists who so far appear unswayed by the president's public salesmanship. And Democrats, led by their new party chairman, Howard Dean, have begun firing back, belittling the forums as rigged spectacles rather than true town-hall meetings.

The White House follows a practiced formula for each of the meetings. First it picks a state, generally one where a lawmaker or two might be pressured to vote the president's way. It then lines up panelists who will sing the praises of the president's plan. Finally, it loads the audience with Republicans and other supporters.

To help make its case, the White House recruits such people as Mark Darr, 31, an insurance agent from Benton, Ark., who joined the president on stage at a forum in Little Rock last month. In a subsequent interview, Darr said he thinks he was chosen because he went to college with one son of Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and provided insurance for another.

After the governor's office called, Darr said, he began receiving one call after another from the White House, quizzing him on his thoughts on Social Security and his family history, just as they did all the other candidates. "I'm sure they wanted to ... make sure they weren't going to embarrass the president," Darr said.

Not so his mother. At first when he mentioned that she receives Social Security, he said, White House aides seemed eager to add her to the panel. Then they called her. "She wasn't really for the private accounts, so they didn't decide to use her," Darr said.

The night before the event, the chosen participants gathered for a rehearsal in the same hall in which the president would appear the next day. An official dispatched by the White House played the president and asked questions. "We ran through it five times before the president got there," Darr said.

Erma Fingers Hendrix, 74, a retired nurse who also participated in the Little Rock event, said she thinks she was picked because she has been active for years in Republican women's clubs in Arkansas and campaigned for Bush in 2000 and 2004 — once even introducing him at a campaign rally. "The ones who contacted me in 2000 probably said, 'Erma's easy to work with,' " she said.

Hendrix said the administration official who helped them practice educated the panelists on the plan without scripting them.

"It was just a matter of learning," she said. "We just really talked about what was going on, what the president was proposing and what did we think about it. ... They didn't prompt me what to say or how to say it."

Don Farnsworth, 74, a retired pilot and Air Force major, described a similar session before an event Thursday in Montgomery, Ala.

"They had a couple people on the staff come down and introduce us all," he said. "We all went into a small room, and they told us what they were looking for was what our ideas were on the president's Social Security plan." By then, he said, the interview process had thinned out the group. "They found out how we felt about it, and I guess that's how we got chosen."

Stage prepared

With signs saying "Protecting Our Seniors" flanking him, the president talks at length at these events about his desire for bipartisanship and a solution to save a troubled system for future generations. Nothing is said of benefit cuts that White House officials privately acknowledge will be part of any Social Security deal.

The mood inside the room often is at odds with what is happening outside. More than a month after Bush began his campaign to restructure Social Security, politicians and the public are deeply divided over private accounts and the tax increases, benefit cuts or both that experts say are sure to accompany them.

Unlike the seniors at these events, most older Americans express in polls deep skepticism about private accounts. And many Republicans are dubious. Bush, who continues to calibrate his pitch, told the Memphis audience that the solution is simple: Members from both parties should lay down their arms, come to the table and hammer out a compromise.

"There's still people saying, 'I'm not so sure I want to get involved,' " Bush said. "Now is the time to put aside our political differences and focus on solving this problem for generations to come."

He made nearly a half-dozen similar appeals, although the president has yet to engage many congressional Democrats personally. To illustrate his bipartisan ways, Bush invited former Democratic Rep. Tim Penny of Minnesota onto the stage to tell the audience that Social Security is an "urgent issue, and it's one that needs to be addressed sooner than later."

Next up was Mary Hines, a Social Security recipient who worked for 40 years as a secretary. "Are you worried about the reforms?" asked Bush, who is increasingly trying to convince skeptical seniors that their benefits will go untouched.

"No," she said. "In fact, as we understand it, the reforms will not affect us."

Pastor Andrew Jackson of the Faith Temple Ministries Church of God praised Bush for tackling the issue, and lamented what he described as some of the false charges made about the president's plan. "That's called political propaganda," Bush said.

Harry Summer testified to the benefit of "compound interest" in private accounts — a point the president stresses at every stop.

Finally, Karen Siegfried, representative of the younger generation that Bush says will benefit most from the plan, made a plea.

"I presume you expect Congress to get something done now, before it's too late?" Bush said.

"Yes, I do," she concluded.