ANALYSIS: Thompson's Social Security Plan

Nov. 9, 2007— -- Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson's plan to save Social Security and protect seniors, which he introduced Friday afternoon in a Washington, D.C., hotel, differs starkly from standard election year pablum on the subject in one key way: He's actually treating voters like adults.

The former Tennessee senator is proposing fixes for the Social Security system -- and the looming financial shortfall -- with legislation people will not like, reducing benefits for future retirees.

When it was suggested in an interview with ABC News that his opponents would almost certainly portray him as wanting to cut Social Security benefits, Thompson said, "Of course they will."

"That's why people don't bring it up," Thompson told ABC News, "so therefore we continue on the current path and we bankrupt the system."

Friday Thompson declared, accurately, that the current system is "unsustainable. This commitment cannot be made under present circumstances without dipping into general revenue or raising taxes."

The baritone-voiced former actor suggested that "there are no free lunches for anybody" in any real solution.

It's a marked change from the past. Of the seven leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, three -- Thompson, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina -- are actually acknowledging specific measures to fix the Social Security system that would inflict some pain on the voters in the form of either benefit reductions or tax increases.

It is perhaps an indication that some politicians -- and even perhaps some voters -- are prepared to touch the so-called "third rail" of American politics, so named because its mere touch is thought to be lethal.