Democrats voting here on platform for convention
Saturday, August 09, 2008
By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Democratic officials will be asked today to sign off on a party platform that does its best to salve the wounds of their long and contentious primary battle.
The traditional statement of party principles -- often the subject of pre-convention debate, but rarely remembered afterwards -- will be submitted to the 186-member platform committee here today and, assuming their endorsement, finally approved by a vote of the convention delegates in Denver.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, the platform committee chair, described the draft that will be voted on today as a consensus product shaped by the input of supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as by the campaign of the soon-to-be nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.
"We had people on the drafting committee that had been Clinton supporters, that had been Obama supporters; by the end, we were all in agreement on what should be in the platform," she said yesterday.
"They did a nice job melding the Clinton views and the Obama views together -- not that they were that far apart," said Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who also was in Pittsburgh for the platform session.
The Obama campaign was the de facto editor-in-chief of the 51-page document, but it includes numerous passages that bow to the interests of his chief competitors in the primary marathon.
Reflecting the concerns of many supporters of Mrs. Clinton are its passages on health care and most pointedly, its denunciations of sexism. It lauds Mrs. Clinton as "the first woman in American history to win presidential primaries in our nation."
Referring to the number of votes Mrs. Clinton received in her protracted battle against Mr. Obama, and echoing language she frequently used on the campaign trail, it states that "our party is proud to have put 18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling."
Other language mirrors former Sen. John Edwards' focus on the poor, as it pledges that "Working together, we can cut poverty in half within 10 years."
Democratic officials, however, were not eager to comment on Mr. Edwards in any context yesterday. At a voter registration rally in the Hill District yesterday afternoon, Mr. Dean and Ms. Napolitano offered repeated "no comments" to questions about Mr. Edwards' acknowledgement, just hours before, of the extramarital affair first reported by the National Enquirer.
That the draft has achieved some consensus on issues is not a surprise after a primary campaign that focused more on records and leadership qualities than on ideology. One of the relatively few major policy debates centered on whether adults should be required to obtain health coverage. Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards argued that such a requirement was necessary to spread the cost of universal coverage. Mr. Obama, arguing that lack of affordability was the main impediment to universal care, did not include such a requirement, although he does support a coverage mandate for children.
The platform draft finesses that dispute.
"Coverage should be made affordable for all Americans with direct financial assistance through tax credits and other means," it states.
"As affordable coverage is made available, individuals should purchase health insurance and take steps to lead healthy lives," it says at another point, without specifying a mechanism to ensure that that happens.
The draft calls for a new tax credit to help small businesses provide health care, an element that in Mrs. Clinton's original health care proposals.
The platform deliberations, scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, will include consideration of any amendments proposed for the final version of the platform, which will be submitted to the full convention in Denver.
Ms. Napolitano said she expected a smooth session but added that she did not know how many amendments had been submitted or how long it would take to consider them.
She described the drafting process as "very consensual," but it may not have been sufficient to satisfy every Clinton partisan. As Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Dean spoke at the voter registration rally at the Hill District's Freedom Corner, three demonstrators stood across Crawford Avenue. One held a long sign proclaiming, "No self-respecting women should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores herself."
Several other demonstrations are expected outside the convention center showcasing other issues. Advocates of universal health care, who argue that the party's plan does not go far enough in changing the nation's medical system, have scheduled one rally. Iraq war opponents plan another demonstration urging the end to the deployments of National Guard units to Iraq.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08222/903082-176.stm
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