Kim, Have You Met Rhonda?

The MoveOn PAC ad in today's New York Times features people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 but plan to vote for John Kerry this year. Collectively, they make me worry more about Kerry than anything a medal-minimizing Vietnam vet has said.

The ad starts off OK, with Iraq War veteran Lee Buttrill faulting the Bush administration for going to war over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction (although he uncharitably calls the WMD argument "just a lie," rather than a mistake). Then financial consultant Kim Mecklenburg, "a lifelong Republican," says she was turned off by Bush's "reckless spending" and disregard for civil liberties. Go, Kim!

Almost immediately, however, laser printer technician Rhonda Nix is complaining that the government should be spending "billions and billions of dollars" on health care, education, and welfare at home instead of using it to "liberate other people." Former National Steel executive Richard Coffee criticizes Bush for not doing enough to "protect the steel companies." Sixth-grade teacher Debbie Mancuso wants more spending on education, and mother-of-eight Deborah Wood, whose husband has had difficulty finding a job despite his bachelor's degree in computer science, wants the government to stop companies from "sending jobs overseas."

Notice that Bush gets no credit, only blame, for his big-spending, tariff-imposing ways, which serves him right. But bad as Bush has been, MoveOn seems determined to convince us that Kerry would we worse.