It’s hard to pick which piece of White House re-election propaganda most insults our intelligence – there’s so much to choose from!

There’s President Bush’s “compassion” hoax – that is, pretending to care about those in need yet looking the other way while (say) a record 44 million Americans go without health coverage. There’s the deficit hoax – that is, pitching us on the absurd notion that Bush is fiscally responsible even as he’s squandered record surpluses and is racking up the biggest deficits in history.

But the winner (at least for now – the night is still young!) has to be the ad Bush is running in 18 swing states to “persuade” Americans that John Kerry doesn’t support our troops in Iraq. And the most offensive part of this most insulting of appeals is the way it takes a Kerry video clip out of context in which the Massachusetts senator tells an audience, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”

Karl Rove thinks this is thigh-slapping proof that Kerry is pure waffler. In fact, Kerry’s full point shows precisely the opposite. If I were Kerry, I’d use this fight over the funding for Iraq to showcase the difference between his values and the president’s on a choice where the vast majority of Americans would side with Kerry.

What would that sound like? Let’s go to the videotape.

(John Kerry in suit and tie talking to camera):

“George Bush is attacking me in a cynical and preposterous ad that says I don’t support our troops in Iraq. He’s making fun of the fact that I voted for money for Iraq on one vote before voting against his plan to pay for the war on another. Once you know the facts, I think you’ll be as disappointed as I am that this is the kind of discourse to which an American president would stoop.

“Here are the facts: George Bush is having our children pay for Iraq. He has put $160 billion so far on our kids’ credit card to pay for a war we chose to wage. We are running record budget deficits of over half a trillion dollars a year because George Bush says our children should pay for their parents’ war.

“My plan was different. My plan was to pay to finish the job in Iraq by repealing some of the tax cuts that George Bush gave to the best-off Americans.

“Every well-off American I’ve asked has told me they would have gladly supported such a plan. They feel, as I do, that it is un-American to stick our children with debts for today’s wars in order to preserve big tax cuts for people at the top. It’s just wrong.

“So I voted for my plan to pay for our own choices today, and against President Bush’s plan to slip our children the bill so that he could give tax cuts to the wealthiest. I can’t think of a clearer way to show you how my values differ from those of this White House. You’ll be choosing between these values come November.

“I challenge President Bush to stop hiding behind slick attack ads and to explain, from his own mouth, and in more than hit-and-run sound bites, why my plan to pay for the war we’ve chosen to fight today isn’t more responsible than the Bush plan to stick our kids with the bill for a war he’s mismanaging – all in order to give tax cuts to those who need them least.

“I’m John Kerry and I approved this message because one of the choices you face this fall is whether you want a leader who will finally trust you with the truth – or one who can only achieve his goals by misleading you or insulting your intelligence.”

Matthew Miller is a syndicated columnist and author. Reach him on the Web at: www.mattmilleronline.com.