nation and world
McCain, GOP's platform at odds
Immigration and global warming are sticking points in an initial draft.
By Matthew Benjamin
Bloomberg News
Article Last Updated: 08/27/2008 12:16:00 AM MDT
The Republican Party released a draft of its 2008 platform that differs from candidate John McCain on issues including immigration, stem-cell research and climate change, while endorsing his ideas for economic growth and free trade.
The document, still untitled, is being debated over the next two days and may be altered before being passed at next week's Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. McCain aides have said they don't plan to engage in a fight over platform positions.
Members of the party's conservative wing have been wary of McCain, in part because of his stances on immigration and global warming. Donald Devine of the American Conservative Union said he was satisfied with the draft. Clashes over the platform during the convention can accentuate splits in the party and distract presidential candidates from projecting an image of party unity.
"It's certainly a vast improvement over the 2004 document," said Devine, vice chairman of the advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va.
The document states opposition to any plan that would provide amnesty for people in the country illegally. "The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity," it says.
That's a tougher line than the 2004 text, which called for a "humane" immigration system with a temporary-worker program and a path for illegal immigrants "to come out of the shadows" and apply for citizenship. The language four years ago mirrored President Bush's goals for revamping immigration laws.
The 2004 platform also reflects the position of McCain, who co-sponsored legislation last year that would have overhauled the immigration system and offered an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship while tightening the border with Mexico and creating a guest-worker program. He has since said the U.S. must secure its borders before changing the system.
Like the 2004 document, this year's text opposes the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research. McCain supports such research and has said he would reverse Bush's ban on federal funding to develop treatments using embryonic stem cells.
The 2008 text supports a constitutional amendment "that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it."
Earlier this month McCain, 71, said that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Still, he supports same-sex civil unions and would let states decide the marriage question.
Climate a top priority
Climate change is another area where the platform and candidate differ. The language of the 2008 platform is little changed from 2004, adding that "Republicans caution against the doomsday climate-change scenarios peddled by aficionados of centralized command-and-control government." It calls technology and markets the keys to reducing carbon emissions without damaging the economy.
McCain has said addressing climate change would be a top priority if he's elected. He backs mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions and a cap-and-trade system to help bring that about.
Like McCain, the platform emphasizes low taxes as the key to economic growth. Its call for extending Bush's tax cuts and more reductions in corporate tax rates are consistent with positions McCain has been campaigning on.
In a reference to the housing crisis, the document supports "timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis" without encouraging people to borrow more than they can afford. There is no mention in the draft of the current credit crisis or turmoil in the financial markets.
Support for free trade remains a plank in the party's platform, with the text echoing McCain's stance in calling trade essential to jobs and higher wages as well as national security.
Like McCain, the platform calls for more oil exploration and production in the U.S. "We simply must draw more American oil from American soil," it says. Nuclear energy, which the document calls "a gift to mankind implanted in matter itself," is also promoted in the text.
"United" for McCain
McCain aides played down any differences between the candidate's stances and the platform. Taylor Griffin, a McCain spokesman, said Republicans "are united" behind McCain.
"We look forward to working with the delegates over the next few days as the platform process moves forward," he said.
The 2004 platform, titled "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America," was closely controlled and written by the Bush administration, which rankled some conservatives such as Devine.
McCain, by contrast, has largely taken a hands-off approach.
"That says a lot of good things about the McCain campaign," Devine said.
In recent years both parties' platforms have become less relevant: They're often written by and for the parties' bases and largely ignored by the candidates. That's what happened in 1996, when Republican candidate Bob Dole, angry at some of the language in the document, claimed he hadn't read it. Dole lost his bid for the presidency to President Clinton.
Still, the platform can be a harbinger of new directions the party is likely to go, and conservatives say McCain would do well to pay attention to it.
"When we didn't do what Bob Dole wanted, he just went out and said he wasn't going to pay attention to it anyway," said Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of the advocacy group Eagle Forum, who has been active in Republican politics since 1952. "And we know what happened to Bob Dole." |
