Jay Rosen played the Ari Fleischer trump card. To respond, we reached into the White House gaggle transcript deck and randomly grabbed the first card -- Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan, March 4, 2005. That blind choice turns out to be a higher trump than Rosen's. [Try your luck. Reach into the deck and choose your own.]
Clearly these reporters want the juice about the competition. Then, at the end, the reporters set up a Hobson's choice of impolitic options in a failed attempt to entrap the press secretary.
This is the White House press corps, Jay Rosen reminds us, Ari Fleisher called "tough". Yes, they are tough. Tough because they are focused on the peripheral. Tough because substantive explanation isn't important. Tough, because informing the public clearly and completely doesn't seem to interest them.
BTW, I didn't fisk this performance, because it stands on its own. The transcript reads:
Q On Social Security, with the news this week -- Grassley's comments, Frist, the Democratic attack -- does the President feel he needs to shift message at all or reinforce his message? What is today about?
MR. McCLELLAN: Continuing to clearly define the problems facing Social Security. I think you have seen important progress made in the last several weeks in the sense that more and more people recognize the problems facing Social Security. And it's important for us to have a common understanding of what those problems are. I mean, in just over a decade from now, Social Security is going be experiencing shortfalls. They're not going to be -- they're going to be paying out more than they are taking into the system. Just three years from now, the baby boomers start to retire, and it places great strains on our Social Security system.
So Social Security cannot meet its future benefit promises because it's going broke. And that's why we need to act now to strengthen it. And that's the message the President is continuing to take to the American people. It's important to engage all the American people in this discussion because it affects everybody.
And what we're talking about doing is making sure nothing changes for today's seniors, but making sure that our children and grandchildren have that safety net guarantee. And he may talk about some of that today.
Q Is he going to stress the safety net, maybe, over the private accounts -- just put more emphasis on that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, personal accounts are part of a comprehensive solution. He'll continue to talk about the importance of personal accounts. But --
Q But is he going to talk more about --
MR. McCLELLAN: But the President is pursuing a comprehensive solution, and we welcome -- we welcome others expressing their ideas for a solution. I mean, people are now starting to talk about solutions. That's a significant step from where we were several weeks ago when some who -- some were initially just saying that there's not a problem, and they were stating, simply, what they're against. Now, people are starting to talk about a solution, and we hope people will continue to work in a constructive way and offer ideas for solving this problem. The President wants to move forward in a bipartisan way. And that's what he's going to continue talking about.
But I expect he'll continue to talk about -- I expect he'll talk about the importance of making sure that that safety net is there for our children and grandchildren. Right now, that safety net does have a big hole in it.
Q More so than in past speeches on Social Security?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you'll be there for today's remarks. These are conversations. So it's not prepared remarks, per se. He has some points that I'm sure he'll want to make.
Q So you don't feel any need to retool the message? Or is it, just keep doing what you're doing, and eventually people will come on board?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's what I just pointed out. If you look at survey after survey, it shows that the American people recognize there are serious problems facing Social Security. That's very clear. But it's important to have a clear understanding of what those problems are.
And this is the first stage, as the President has talked about, in our efforts to strengthen Social Security. So we're still in this early stage right now where we're reaching out to the American people, we're reaching out to members of Congress in trying to find a way we can move forward in a -- for a bipartisan solution.
Q Scott, those surveys that you mentioned a couple of times also show the more the President talks, the less Americans seem to trust him on the issue of Social Security, and the less they like the notion of private or personal accounts. What accounts for that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, the President has talked about some of his ideas for personal accounts. And I think there are surveys that show Americans in support of being able to have the opportunity of owning more of their retirement savings. This is about giving people -- giving all Americans the opportunity to own their retirement savings by giving them a voluntary option of investing in personal accounts. And the President will continue to talk about that.
It was just 30 days -- just over 30 days ago when he outlined his idea for personal accounts in the State of the Union address. And that's part of the solution. But this is a comprehensive -- we need to make Social Security permanently sound. If you recall, that's what the President has talked about. And now you have a lot more people talking about the need to do just that. And so we appreciate the progress that's been made there.
Q I guess I would follow up by saying, you've made progress, people have heard the President's words, they recognize there's a crisis. They also seem to be hearing his words on these other fronts, and trusting him less, and liking private accounts less. So if he's effective on one front, isn't he being quite uneffective on the other?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I disagree, because it's very early in the process, and you're trying to judge the outcome of the game in the very first inning. And, so there's --
Q But it's early enough in the process -- it's early enough in the process to have made a conclusion about whether you're making progress on educating the American people. So they're only listening to part of what he's saying, and not the other part, or they're not smart enough --
MR. McCLELLAN: The focus right now -- absolutely not. In fact, quite the opposite. That's why we trust people to be able to have a -- more say over their own retirement security. We're going to continue talking about the importance of making sure that our children and grandchildren have a secure retirement. There have been some scare tactics out there, saying that this would affect seniors. Well, seniors are learning, that's not the case. It's not going to affect today's seniors. They have their guarantee. We want to make sure that their children and grandchildren have a guarantee. And that's what this is about.
