A friend recently asked my opinion on Bush's plan to revamp Social Security.

My quick take: as Bush is finding out, you can convince the American people of many dubious claims, but no amount of propaganda will convince them that "social security" really means "personal risk."

Bush's plan is doomed by its very language, let alone the faulty economics undergirding it.

The real question is what he's really up to in pushing so hard for something even he (or his advisors) must have been aware would never work.