Bush employs a gentle touch

WASHINGTON — Confronted with a unified Democratic opposition and doubters in his own party, President Bush Wednesday night laid out his much-anticipated domestic agenda with uncharacteristic gestures of diplomacy. It was a soothing, calming State of the Union speech on the heels of his soaring, sometimes strident inaugural address.

Bush, who prides himself on sketching out big problems and proposing bold solutions, didn't cut back on the scope of his plans, but he presented them with an invitation to negotiate, advertising his own flexibility. On this night, the man who admires Winston Churchill came off a little like Bill Clinton, taking the driver's seat but offering those who don't fully agree with him a chance to help navigate.

Bush has been laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of Social Security as the centerpiece of his second term, and many people in both parties expected him to try to offer a full plan combining cuts in proposed benefits and shifts of some retirement funds into private investments.

The "crisis is now" rhetoric that marked his discussion of Social Security at his economic summit last month seemed a call to arms. But Wednesday night, he softened his words and relied mostly on gentle persuasion, comparing long-term concerns about the solvency of Social Security to a parent's worry about his or her child's college tuition.

Bush strongly extolled the benefits of private retirement accounts, but made no specific mention of benefit changes and seemed content to leave the dirty work up to Congress, offering only a fatherly exhortation to all to "join together to strengthen and save Social Security."

"Fixing Social Security permanently will require an open, candid review of the options," Bush said. "I will work with members of Congress to find the most effective combination of reforms."

The softer sell, with the extension of an olive branch, was in part a matter of necessity. The new Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, had vowed that any Bush Social Security proposal, including personal retirement accounts, would be opposed by a unified bloc of Democrats. In the House, Bill Thomas of California, powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, had warned that Bush's plan for Social Security would be a "dead horse" if he didn't make a very persuasive case.