Senator Kerry is out with a new campaign commercial that offers a disturbing message. “For John Kerry, a stronger America begins at home. Real plans to create jobs here, not overseas,” the ad says, going on to promise “independence from Middle East oil.” It’s one thing for Mr. Kerry to talk about his plans to create jobs here in America. But what’s with the phrase “not overseas”? Does Mr. Kerry think massive unemployment abroad is good for the American economy or American security? In fact, fewer jobs overseas mean fewer potential customers for American companies that sell goods overseas. Some of these unemployed foreigners with time on their hands may also decide to spend their energy attacking America.

Contrast Mr. Kerry’s vision of creating jobs “here, not overseas,” with President Bush’s oft-repeated message, “I’m a uniter, not a divider.” Or even with bitter Bush critic George Soros’s vision of “America leading the world toward a global open society.” Mr. Kerry’s advertisements are carefully crafted. They could have just cited “Real plans to create jobs here,” and left it at that. They could have said,”real plans to create jobs here to add to the ones Bush has shipped overseas.” They could have said, “Real plans to create jobs here and grow the economy worldwide.” But “not overseas” has a nativist edge we haven’t heard on the national scene in some time. It’s as if the Kerry campaign is trying to take a page from Patrick Buchanan and pit Americans against the rest of the world.

Mr. Kerry’s vow for “independence from Middle East oil” is another suggestion to voters that America can somehow cut itself off from the world. Dig into it, and even Mr. Kerry somewhat eases away from the claim. His campaign Web site speaks of “a new Manhattan Project to make America independent of Middle East oil in 10 years.” The television commercial doesn’t say it would take 10 years — it just speaks of “independence from Middle East oil.” Since a president is limited to two four-year terms, this promise is a bit of a stretch. In the short term, America could reduce its energy consumption. But according to the Department of Energy, America consumed about 20 million barrels of oil a day in 2003. Of that, about 12.2 million barrels a day was imported.

As long as we’re using any imported oil, its price is going to be determined in the context of a world oil market that doesn’t much care whether the stuff comes from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, the Middle East, or Texas. Decisions and events in the Middle East are going to affect oil prices worldwide even if we get more of our oil from other sources, because it’s a global market for a fungible commodity. The fact is that a lot of the world’s oil is in the Middle East.

Mr. Bush has veered into some of the same illogic, but not with the nastiness of the Kerry campaign. If Mr. Kerry generally favors free trade, as he claims to, why should energy be an exception? There are plenty of other sectors where America imports a lot.

America imports vastly more goods from Canada, China, the United Kingdom, and Japan than it does from Saudi Arabia. But you don’t hear Mr. Kerry saying. “We must become less reliant on Japanese consumer electronics,” or “We must become less reliant on Scotch whiskey,” or “We must become less reliant on Canadian timber and paper products.”

One reason for the difference may be that Japan, Scotland, and Canada aren’t at war with America and its values, while some of the Middle Eastern oil producers are. But the Chinese Communists are certainly hostile to America and our values, and few except for the American labor unions are saying,”We must become less reliant on Chinese-made clothing.” The danger is that the politicians will feed the destructive myth that America can disengage from the rest of the world and become a self-sufficient island fortress. That’s especially a risk when a candidate is, like Mr. Kerry, promising “to create jobs here, not overseas.”

The Kerry television commercial concludes by promising “strong alliances” and vowing that under Mr. Kerry, America will be “respected in the world.”

It’s an oddly two-faced commercial. Mr. Kerry promises that he won’t create any jobs for non-Americans or buy any oil from non-Americans, then turns around and claims that his administration would be respected around the world. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time that John “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it” Kerry found a way to come down firmly on both sides of an issue.