Is Ruth Marcus really so desperate to ‘even the scales’ that she’s claiming that the phrase “privatizing Social Security” is “incendiary” language that amounts to deception? Is she so ignorant of this debate that she doesn’t know that it was the preferred language of the advocates of privatization for more than two decades until they found out it wasn’t polling well enough during the first two years of the Bush administration?

And it’s apparently a big lie to say that Florida retirees would be in a big jam right now if John McCain had had his way right now and privatized Social Security because under McCain’s and Bush’s plan current retirees and those a few years from retirement wouldn’t be affected. So in other words, from when McCain instituted the plan five years ago it wouldn’t have affected those now drawing benefits or just entering the system. Or wait, McCain’s not even president yet, right? So, true, presumably it wouldn’t apply right now in 2008 to anyone in advance of McCain’s even being in office and putting through his plan.

The point is that there’s no end of special pleading and candidate hand-holding when the topic is the privatization of Social Security. And even the prestige columnists appear completely innocent of the details of how the proposed changes would work.