On many issues, Ronald Reagan has a well-deserved reputation for stubbornness, if not downright inflexibility.
But last Thursday, in a rare retreat, he said of Social Security, "Our feet were never embedded in concrete on this proposal." Besieged by mounting pressure from within his own party and a fire storm of increasingly effective rhetoric from Democratic leaders, the President decided to shelve any major reforms of the all-but-bankrupt Social Security system as part of his second round of budget cuts. He had hoped to confront the issue head-on during his televised speech. Instead,...