A recap of Bush's rare television address Thursday night

On overhauling Social Security:

By allowing payments to low-income workers to rise faster than those to wealthier ones, the overhaul can be made to work. That sounds great, but progressives aren’t buying it. The Bush administration has been discussing a proposal sometimes called "progressive price indexing,” which entails quite substantial benefit reductions not only for affluent families but for middle-class ones, too, says Robert Greenstein, director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that tracks economic matters. Under it, the average worker would eventually see his or her payouts decline by 28 percent, the largest drop ever.

On younger workers:

The president tonight suggested that the promises being made to younger workers now are empty, and that the workers instead should be banking on “real assets, real money.” That means sending them out to invest in the stock market, taking their chances. But he said, almost flippantly, that people could put their money into government bonds if they wanted to.

On the rise in gas prices:

Bush hopes countries with excess capacity can increase production to take some of the heat out of the market, but there aren’t any countries with excess capacity, except for Russia. Bush spoke jocularly of Russian leader Putin, calling him “Vladimir.” (Imagine FDR calling Churchill “Winston” or Stalin “Joe.”) And he reported Secretary of State Condi Rice had had a good long talk with Putin about the meaning of democracy.

On his posse:

He again made a plug to John Bolton, his beleaguered nominee for ambassador to the United Nations. And he spoke on behalf of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s dreamy Star Wars scheme for protecting the U.S. and perhaps Japan, a system that so far hasn’t shown much sign of working.

Finally:
"I don't want to cut into some of these TV shows that are getting ready to air. For the sake of the economy." Read the whole thing here. [Transcribed in full, complete with fake Southern drawl and Bushisms!]