Bachmann, Gingrich, Paul & Perry flaunt their wares on AARP

The AARP has released an Internet "Voter Education Guide to the 2012 Election", available to AARP members and the general public, featuring hot, raw, unexpurgated footage of people like Newt Gingrich talking about individual retirement accounts.

We took the time to skim rapidly through a couple of the videos, and they may be worth watching for anyone who believes one of these fringe candidates has a remote shot at capturing the nomination, which of course none of these fringe candidates has a remote shot at doing, despite Newt's current but inevitably fleeting flicker of fortune.

The videos are handily broken up into brief discussions of Social Security, Medicare, Jobs & the Economy, and Retirement Security. We've embedded a few snippets from the Social Security sections below. You'll have to visit the site to explore the rest, which we frankly have neither the time nor the inclination to do.

Based on our cursory background examination of the interviews, Michele Bachmann seems to be convinced that Social Security is doomed (for the people not yet in the system, that is. Don't want to scare the seniors!) and that the only solution is to privatize it, which will somehow make more money magically appear in the system.

Newt wants it both ways – both public and private – which seems to be a more and more popular trend among candidates these days (Flat tax! – but only for those who want it, i.e. rich people).

Ron Paul, predictably, offers young people the chance to opt out of the Social Security system entirely, somehow failing to observe that young people are the ones who finance the system for old people. When they get old, a new batch of young people finances the system for them. The fact that Paul's approach would immediately bankrupt the system and force seniors to subsist on catfood and stolen Sweet-n-Low packages is apparently a necessary step on the grand march to Freedom.

Rick Perry attempts to backpedal on his infamous "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme" assertions by clarifying: "I know there's a lot of scare tactics out there. There are people that are, you know, running ads and what have you – this person's gonna take away your social security, or they've called it a Ponzi scheme." Interesting approach!

You can watch the full interviews or select segments on the AARP website. Enjoy!