Democratic Party's platform is giving Kerry room to run
The platform that the Democratic National Convention will adopt today is studiously vague or silent on an array of issues that has split the often fractious party in the past or provided rich targets for Republicans.
From the invasion of Iraq to global warming, rough spots have been sandpapered down in planks upon which the candidacies of John F. Kerry and congressional contenders will stand. The platform is nonbinding for any candidate, but the dearth of deviations from mainstream Democratic orthodoxy could deprive the GOP of some ammunition in November elections. It also could provide additional running room for Senate and House candidates on some hot-button issues in more-conservative states.
Earlier this month in Florida, Kerry campaign agents successfully prevented activists from winning enough support for minority reports to the convention on Iraq and other issues. As a result, the convention today will vote up or down on the entire platform with no possibility of amendments.
Republicans have said the Democratic platform was crafted to mask the liberal stands of Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards.
"It's not a question of avoiding," said Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, who chaired the drafting committee. "We did not avoid any difficult issue, whether it was national security, energy, the environment, civil rights, health care, or education.
"At the outset, it was my view that what we wanted to do was craft a document that was thematic and not a laundry list of programs. It's a document about the new direction the Democratic Party is going to take the country in. It's optimistic and forward-looking."
She acknowledged that there was internal debate about the party's posture on the invasion of Iraq, but little or none on many other key issues.
Before and during daylong deliberations in Florida on July 10, Kerry campaign aides worked assiduously to avoid sharp public disagreements before the platform committee adopted, more or less intact, the recommendations of DeLauro's group. Specifically, they persuaded antiwar activists to withdraw proposed amendments that would have labeled the Iraq invasion "a mistake" and called for a timetable for withdrawing US troops.
Polls have indicated that most Democrats now think the war was a mistake, but the platform language says, "People of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq." It also criticizes the "exaggerated" case made by the Bush administration for the invasion and failure to build "a true international coalition." Compromise language merely states that the United States will reduce its forces "when appropriate so that the military support needed by a sovereign Iraqi government will no longer be seen as the direct continuation of an American military presence."
DeLauro said "there were differences around the specific language with regard to Iraq but absolute unanimity about the failure of George Bush's foreign policy." She acknowledged "lengthy conversations" with antiwar activists who supported presidential candidate Representative Dennis J. Kucinich and who were pushing for sharper language.
Kerry lieutenants also worked to keep any reference to the Kyoto global warming treaty of 1997 out of the platform. The 2000 platform called for its ratification, handing George W. Bush an issue that hurt Al Gore in coal-producing states like West Virginia and Ohio that would be hit hard economically by greenhouse emissions curbs.
Instead, this year's platform says, "We will address the challenge of climate change with the seriousness of purpose this great challenge demands."
