Jumping the shark in New Hampshire

You may have seen this elsewhere, but it’s just too hilarious not to mention.

For President Bush, Social Security reform tops a busy second-term agenda, but yesterday’s stop on his campaign-style reform push brought little more than a collective ho-hum from Granite Staters.

White House aides collected empty chairs in an echoing Pease International Tradeport hangar before Bush took the stage since only about half of the 2,000 free tickets were taken. And those who did come gave Bush a welcome that paled in comparison to his fall campaign rallies.

Dedicated backers said they liked the president’s pitch. But others left shaking their heads at Bush’s controversial gambit.

“Yes, there are problems with Social Security down the road, but where’s the immediate problem?” asked Paul Guercio, a 58-year-old unenrolled research scientist from nearby Lyman, Maine. “The president tells a good story, but I think this is scare tactics.”

So, Bush travels to a traditionally Republican state and can’t get people to attend a free presidential event, while some of those who did show up are hardly on board. That sound you hear is the White House Social Security scheme jumping the shark.

What’s more, though the Boston Herald article didn’t mention it, a sizable portion of the crowd that did show up was part of a Big Business astroturf initiative.

Hundreds among them were locals recruited for the coordinated rollout of a campaign with big business — and big money — behind it.

The effort, called Generations Together, is designed to put a public face on a drive by the business lobbying community in Washington to increase support for the president’s plan and, in turn, apply pressure on the lawmakers who will decide its fate.

In other words, corporate lobbyists were packing the crowd to show more support for Bush’s privatization plan and White House aides still had to scurry around, removing empty seats to make the event appear less pathetic.

It couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate group of people.