WASHINGTON — It was a spectacular flop: a president making dozens of fruitless trips around the country to build support for a plan his own party's leadership refused to accept.
But President Bush's failed push to privatize Social Security has not deterred John McCain from putting forward the same idea -- and from risking a similar political disaster.
McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, spoke several times last week about changing how the popular retirement program is funded, at one point calling it a "disgrace" that younger workers are forced to pay for a plan that, in his view, is unlikely to benefit them when they retire.
Democrats are gearing up to turn McCain's stand on Social Security, and his willingness to consider a privatization plan, into a key campaign issue. They say changing the program in that way would undermine retirees' benefits, and they hope to use the issue to harm the Arizona senator's support among a set of voters who tilt toward him -- seniors.
On Tuesday, a coalition of Democratic strategists, labor unions and liberal activist groups that helped defeat Bush's efforts in 2005 plans to launch a similar campaign. They intend to target McCain and dozens of GOP congressional candidates who have supported proposals to allow workers to divert some of their payroll taxes out of the Social Security system and into private investment accounts.
The groups, coordinating with the Democratic National Committee and strategists for the party's presumed presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, will focus on organizing seniors -- a key voting bloc in Florida and several other battleground states and one that has been courted heavily by McCain.
"McCain ought to realize that Bush got burned terribly on this, and nothing's changed," said Edward F. Coyle, executive director of one group, Alliance for Retired Americans.
This week, the coalition -- which began laying its plans Friday in a conference call arranged by the DNC -- will start demonstrating at McCain's events and offices, particularly in key states with many seniors. The group has ordered thousands of signs with "Hands Off My Social Security" on one side and "My Social Security Is Not a Disgrace" on the other.
Although the party can work with outside groups on grass-roots organizing, campaign laws prohibit those groups from coordinating with the party on paid advertising. Some organization officials said Sunday that they anticipated acting on their own to pour money into TV and radio spots targeting McCain and other Republicans on the issue.
