Bubble Boy starts getting the wrong kind of attention

In theory, the idea sounded pretty good. As part of its drive to privatize Social Security, the Bush White House decided it would circumvent the national media and start engaging local and regional media. National reporters, apparently, stopped seeing anything newsworthy about the president answering scripted questions from pre-screened sycophants, so local news outlets offered the Bush gang a better opportunity to drive their points home.

Part of the strategy seemed to be the belief that local reporters would be so caught up in the excitement of a presidential visit, they’d gloss over the fact that these “town hall” gatherings are little more than glorified, taxpayer-financed informercials. Is the plan effective? As the Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin explained very well yesterday, it’s clearly not working the way Karl Rove & Co. intended.

Consider the lede in each of these local stories following White House Social Security events:

* Arizona Daily Star: “The White House called it a conversation with President Bush about Social Security. It was more like a well-scripted pep rally.”

* Tucson Citizen: “President Bush held court inside the Tucson Convention Center yesterday, comfortably chatting up his plan to partially privatize Social Security with hand-picked panelists whose experiences helped to drive his message home.”

* Denver Post: “Bush’s ‘conversation’ with Americans played out more like a pep rally to sell his plan for young workers to divert some of their payroll taxes into private stocks and bonds.”

* Bakersfield Californian: “Cheney makes pitch to fans; Hand-picked Republicans lob softball questions on Social Security at Cal State.”

A liberal-media conspiracy? No, just some reporters waking up to the signature political scam of Bush’s presidency.

If this is what the White House has to show for its tactic of working around the national mainstream press, I think Rove needs a new strategy.