Saving Social Security -- and Democratic seats

In their desire to dismantle Social Security, Republicans have given Democrats an issue that has been politically potent before -- and can be so again.

Robert Shrum

Democrats are facing a midterm hurricane without the benefit of a crucial bulwark to blunt the storm surge.

House Speaker Tip O’Neill laid the foundation in 1981 when he exclaimed of GOP designs to dismantle Social Security: “It’s a rotten thing to do. It’s a despicable thing to do.”

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Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labour Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum's writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. The author of No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner (Simon and Schuster), he is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service.