PERRY'S GAMBLE – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  Social Security has often been called the "third rail" of American politics – touch it and you die.  And yet, Rick Perry is taking the risk, an enormous risk, that his attacks on the Social Security system will pay off.  Look, he may be right.  From The Hill:

Republican presidential contender and Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued his criticisms of Social Security calling the program a "monstrous lie" reports the Houston Chronicle.

"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry said at a campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa. "It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them."

In his anti-Washington book "Fed Up!" published in 2011 Perry had harsh words for Social Security, criticisms he has reiterated on the campaign trail.

Campaigning in Iowa Perry also suggested a willingness to means-test Social Security benefits. "Does Warren Buffett need to get Social Security?  Maybe not," said Perry.

COMMENT:  Perry is known to have a very sharp political team.  And he has never lost an election.  But attacks on any aspect of Social Security gets a candidate into the "soon to be history" risk area.  What Perry must do is show how he'll strengthen Social Security, the most popular government program in existence, by putting it on a firmer financial footing.  If he doesn't, he opens himself to the "he'll rob mom and dad" kind of attacks in which liberals specialize, and which will doom his campaign.

There'll be a new GOP candidates' debate in a few week, the first one in which Perry will participate.  He'll no douvt be challenged on Social Security.  He'd better have a good answer, one that goes beyond simple criticism of the current system.  Right now Perry is doing very well among seniors in political polls.  Maybe that's because they don't know him very well.  Seniors vote in massive numbers.  Perry's introduction to them in the next few weeks had better take account of political reality.

August 29, 2011