Burnt Orange Report

If at first you don't succeed..

By Jim Dallas

I've been wondering when the President's permanent campaign to meddle with Social Security would come to an end recently. There had been, if I recall correctly, some talk of it finishing back in March or April, but it got an extension.

Matt Yglesias has a theory:

When George W. Bush first started talking about Social Security, virtually everything he said was false, and virtually nothing he said was challenged by reporters. Then Democrats, bloggers, etc. started a big hew and cry and all of a sudden it was getting challenged. Then everyone got bored with the whole thing. But Bush just kept on plodding. Now he's still saying all the same stuff that was discredited months ago, but isn't getting challenged on it as much -- either from liberals or from the press. So even though just about everyone in the world except me seems bored by this issue already, I still think it's crucially important not to lose focus.

Yglesias's fears are underpinned by the well-established theory that if you repeat something enough times, it'll become accepted as truth. And the well-documented pattern of this President employing this strategy. Watching the Bush team in action is like watching a small-town high school football team run the option play on every down: extremely predictable, almost tedious, but maddeningly effective, particularly when the other guys don't keep their eyes on the ball.

I'm reminded of some accidental Bushian wisdom right about now...