GOP Platform's Sticky Planks

CBSNews.com producer Jarrett Murphy reports on the Republican National Convention.

Titled "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America," the 93-page platform is dedicated to the late Ronald Reagan, and mostly seems to reflect consensus among the party's factions.

The section on "Winning the War on Terror," for example, backs the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Building An Ownership Society" talks about the need for private savings accounts to strengthen Social Security. The planks on economic policy advocate tax reform, limiting government spending, tort reform and reining in a system in which trial lawyers "get rich from the misfortune of others.

But in the section of the platform entitled "Strengthening Our Communities," the platform backs "the president's policy that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to encourage the future destruction of human embryos" for use in stem cell research. That's a policy that some Republicans, including former first lady Nancy Reagan, have opposed.

Later, in a section called "Protecting Our Families," the platform backs "a Constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage."

That's something Robyn Pladson, a North Dakota delegate, does not support.

"I believe in the Bill of Rights," Pladson said, pointing to the Tenth Amendment, which, she said, states, "all rights and powers not listed herein are hereby granted to the states."

"I don't believe it's the federal government's job to tell states what to do," Pladson said.

Also outside the Young Republicans dinner where Pladson was interviewed were Trina Wilbur, an alternate delegate at her third convention, and Kirby Wilbur, a conservative talk radio host. The couple met in the 1980 Reagan campaign and hail from Seattle.

Kirby Wilbur feels that most delegates were "hesitant" about backing the the Constitutional amendment.

"They would say, 'We hesitate to amend the constitution to make it a Christmas tree, but because of the power federal judges have, through full faith and credit and other clauses, to impose that on the American people, we have to amend the Constitution,'" he said. "I think this is a last resort defense to protect marriage."

In Boston, some Democrats also took issue with elements of their platform, like its support for abortion rights and its equivocation on the war in Iraq.

Outside the Young Republicans soiree, a reporter's questions sparked a debate about whether the platform mattered at all. "Platforms," Pladson said, "were meant to collapse on people." No document can reflect a diverse party's feelings, she said. Writing platforms was mainly a nod to tradition.

Jim Miller, a Young Republican activist from New Jersey, disagreed. A platform is "an ideal, and a starting point," he said. It's something to launch a party's internal conversation, and Miller believes the current platform has been reshaped into a more conservative document after earlier drafts triggered input from the party's grassroots.

But now that it has been written, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said he doubted there would be any debate over the document.

"I don't think it's going to be highlighted to any great extent," he said. "I think the major focus of the people, of the country, on the Republican Party and on Bush, is going to be on Bush's speech Thursday night and not on the platform."

Trina Wilbur agreed that the platform was not a major concern for delegates.

"Quite honestly, I didn't have a chance to look at it," she said, although she noted that the platform was discussed in the morning delegation meeting. Her impression was that it was "not a rubber stamp, but certainly nothing that's going to embarrass the president."

However, the platform — or the GOP's policies in general — did seem to attract notice from outside the convention.

As the Republicans convened in New York, a group of former Republican elected officials called Come Back to the Mainstream printed a full-page ad in The New York Times pleading with fellow GOPers to return "to the proven, common sense values which unite America."

The ad specifically mentions environmental law, fiscal responsibility, stem cell research and appointing "mainstream federal judges." It also calls for steps to secure chemical and nuclear plants and shipping containers, and rebuilding alliances overseas.

In a conference call organized by the group, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods said of Mr. Bush, "He ran as a compassionate conservative and that's not been reflected in his administration."

Woods said he hoped Republicans would realize that a set of moderate policies "is not only the right thing to do. It's good politics also."

Former New Mexico Gov. David Cargo referred to an ideological divide between the convention speakers and the platform the party is running on.

"If you're going to have a moderate spokesman, you've got to have a moderate product," Cargo said.

That may have been a reference to the fact that however conservative the platform, the lineup of convention speakers seems to tilt toward the party's moderate wing.

Monday's stars are former New York City Mayor New York Giuliani, who is perceived to sit to the left of the party on some social issues. He is preceded by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a conservative, but one with a maverick reputation. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, considered a moderate, speaks Tuesday. The keynote speaker, on Wednesday, is actually a conservative Democrat, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller.

But Kirby Wilbur points out that the moderate stars taking the stage are the party's stars, period.

"It's not like there are Ronald Reagans or other conservative superstars who are being put behind," he said.

By Jarrett Murphy