Party Platform, McCain Differ on Immigration, Climate (Bloomberg)
27.08.2008 11:27 Science - Source: Yahoo Science
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, Minnesota. Even with the differences, McCain aides have said they won't 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.
``It's certainly a vast improvement over the 2004 document,'' Devine, vice chairman of the advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia, said.
The platform can be a harbinger of new directions the party is likely to go, and clashes over the document during the conventions can accentuate divisions and distract presidential candidates from projecting an image of unity.
Addressing Immigration
On immigration, the draft 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 George W. Bush's goals for revamping immigration laws.
The 2004 platform also reflected the position of Arizona Senator 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.
No Compromise
The platform committee was unwilling to compromise on its abortion plank to accommodate McCain's views on the issue.
As a senator and presidential candidate, the Arizona Republican has said he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and threats to the life of the mother. For more than two decades the Republican Party has taken a harder line that would ban abortion with no exceptions.
Today, the subcommittee that addresses abortion voted unanimously to strip language in the draft that would soften its stance by calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to reduce abortions.
Ann Stone, national chairwoman of Republicans for Choice, said the wording was cut because ``it sounded too much like Barack Obama.''
Climate Change
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.''
Still, for the first time it uses the term ``global warming'' and acknowledges the effect of ``increased atmospheric carbon.'' 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.
Housing Crisis
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.
The document was altered in committee to add language opposing government bailouts of private institutions, presumably including embattled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ``Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself,'' the text now says.
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.
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.
Platform Importance
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 incumbent President Bill Clinton.
Still, conservatives say McCain would do well to pay attention to the positions of the rank and file.
``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.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Benjamin in Washington at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net .
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