It’s great that you’re sharpening your critique of President Bush, but your economic speeches still sound a bit like a poll-tested laundry list that simple folks (and simple reporters) can’t easily mulch down. As a result, the message that comes through is that John Kerry is “on the offensive” – which is better than a few weeks ago – but people still don’t get the differences in your vision for the country, which matters more.

That’s because Bush’s domestic strategy is to blur differences with you in key areas like health care and education so that swing voters see him as caring enough about these issues to pass muster. Polls show this strategy is working; Bush rates very close to you on health and schools despite deeply illusory “plans.” Time is short.

What should you do? My advice on the domestic side is to mix a little more truth, humor and outrage into the way you contrast your vision and George Bush’s – not simply repeat a zillion times that you’ll “fight for the middle class.” Insert something like these “happy warrior” riffs as your new mantra and repeat daily ’til November:

“George Bush is so cynical – and thinks you’re so dumb – that you can’t understand what he’s really up to. As usual, just before a big election, he’s peddling compassionate conservatism.’ Well, my dictionary defines compassionate conservatism’ as a marketing scam through which our children are forced to pay for huge tax cuts for a handful of wealthy Americans in ways that make it impossible to also pay for decent health care and schools for the rest of us.”

“Trillions in new debt for the kids – and to think George Bush says he cares about the unborn!

“George Bush thinks you’re too dumb to understand this. But we know the truth about George Bush’s vision for America.

“George Bush’s vision is a country where upwards of 50 million people or more are uninsured … forever!

“It’s a country where the least-trained teachers are systematically assigned to the neediest children … forever!

“Bush’s America is a country where tens of millions of families who work full time will still live at the edge of poverty – you guessed it … forever!

“George Bush’s America doesn’t even pay for its own wars but instead sticks our kids with the bill – all in order to preserve $300 billion a year in tax cuts mostly for the wealthiest people in the country.

“But it gets worse. And this is the point you have to follow, because it tells you what kind of man the president really is – as opposed to the kind of man he pretends to be on TV. George Bush believes that if he simply utters the phrase leave no child behind’ … and throws you a few nickels in his tax cut … that you’ll roll over and scream Hallelujah,’ … and won’t notice that he’s bankrupting the country to give his cronies and the best-off hundreds of billions of dollars a year … I’m talking about people like my wife, who, believe me, doesn’t need a tax cut … all this while our kids pay for Iraq.

“Never in American history have we cut taxes on the wealthiest at a time of war. And yet this president has the nerve at the same time to call this a time of sacrifice’! When the only sacrifices being made are by our military, National Guard and reserve members and their families – and by ordinary Americans who fall further behind each year while president’s phony compassion robs them of hope.

“Add it up, my friends, and there may only be one real question in this election: Are the American people as dumb as George Bush thinks you are?

“George Bush’s choices aren’t compassionate; they’re criminal. They’re not inspired; they’re insane. And no matter how pretty the president’s speechwriters make it sound, they are just plain wrong. The good news is that together, we can change this.

“My health plan, which draws on the best ideas from both political parties, will cover the uninsured and lower costs for everyone else. Bush’s own advisers admit his phony plan’ will do neither. That’s not compassion – that’s a fraud.

“My education plan will recruit a new generation of teachers and make college more affordable – the president’s own advisers admit his phony plan’ will do neither. That’s not compassion – that’s a hoax.”

There’s a stirring closer, too, but that’s the best I can deliver on deadline. Coming soon: what to say on Iraq.

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