Party Platform

Republican leaders unanimously approved a resolution Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8, the measure under court review that forbids same-sex marriage in California. The Republican National Committee “affirms its support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America and … implores the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the sanctity of marriage in its rulings on California's Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act,” according to a resolution approved at the group's meeting in Hollywood.

Republican leaders unanimously approved a resolution Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8, the measure under court review that forbids same-sex marriage in California. The Republican National Committee “affirms its support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America and … implores the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the sanctity of marriage in its rulings on California's Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act,” according to a resolution approved at the group's meeting in Hollywood.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In their 2012 platform, Democrats left out a passage from their 2008 party document affirming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - a charged issue that gave Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney an opening to push his argument that he would be a stronger supporter of the Jewish state than President Obama. The topic of Jerusalem is a flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian relations: while the city is the country's legal capital, it is also where Palestinians want to locate the capital of an independent state.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The second night of the Democratic National Convention began in confusion and dissent Wednesday over a last-minute effort to reinsert language in the party's platform invoking God and affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an embarrassing episode that marred what otherwise has been a highflying gathering. The maneuver triggered booing by delegates in Time Warner Cable Arena and raised questions about how President Obama's campaign overlooked the omissions in the drafting process - a failure that handed the Republicans fresh fodder to levy attacks about the administration's values.

Just as President Obama's top campaign advisors are arguing that the prolonged GOP primary is raising controversial issues that will alienate the eventual GOP nominee from independent and swing voters in the fall, Democrats are facing a similar quandary. On Wednesday morning, the chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for the party's platform to push for the legalization of gay marriage. That's a position opposed by Obama -- though he's said his views on the issue are "evolving" -- and one that many Democrats ostensibly would not want to have highlighted a few months before the general election.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The second night of the Democratic National Convention began in confusion and dissent Wednesday over a last-minute effort to reinsert language in the party's platform invoking God and affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an embarrassing episode that marred what otherwise has been a highflying gathering. The maneuver triggered booing by delegates in Time Warner Cable Arena and raised questions about how President Obama's campaign overlooked the omissions in the drafting process - a failure that handed the Republicans fresh fodder to levy attacks about the administration's values.

TAMPA, Fla. - Trying to shift the nation's political attention back to the GOP's preferred battleground - jobs and the economy - House Speaker John A. Boehner said Republicans will retain, if not expand, their hold on the House. Boehner's bullish outlook comes as Democrats are attacking rank-and-file lawmakers for their votes to overhaul Medicare under Paul Ryan's plan and linking them to colleague Todd Akin's remarks that pregnancy rarely results from “legitimate rape.” “Most of them are in better shape than I would have guessed,” the Ohio Republican said Monday in a wide-ranging interview hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Setting their sights on an uphill election next year, Democrats in Orange County began planning their strategy Wednesday with a public airing of their differences, which they dubbed "the looming battle for the soul of the Democratic Party." The battle is scheduled to take place Saturday when Democrats will gather at 10 separate workshops throughout Orange County to discuss solutions to the nation's biggest problems.

The objections to even the modest tolerance language Bob Dole has proposed in the abortion plank of the GOP platform is further evidence that many of my fellow delegates to the Republican National Convention later this month will be absorbed by the debate on the rights of the unborn child. Though I am pro-choice, I share with them the desire to greatly reduce the number of abortions performed in America. It is a shocking 1.6 million per year.

Conservative Republicans defied repeated appeals from President Bush's reelection campaign and Gov. Pete Wilson on Sunday by writing strict abortion language into their state party platform for the first time. Generally, the plank is not as restrictive on a woman's right to choose to have an abortion as the national platform adopted in Houston last month.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An afternoon thunderstorm in downtown Charlotte gave Democrats some measure of comfort Thursday, validating organizers' decision to bring the final night of the convention indoors. But it also served to underscore the inherent gamble they were taking by attempting to hold the proceedings in the open air in the first place. Four years ago, Denver proved to be a more hospitable setting for Barack Obama to deliver his acceptance speech outside. When his campaign team first explored the idea, they were so nervous about the possibility of rain that they asked the meteorologists union to study 100 years worth of conditions for the city on the day of the speech.

WOODSTOCK, Vt. - Republican vice president nominee Paul Ryan sharply criticized Democrats for removing a passage from their 2012 platform stating that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - language that was part of the party document in 2008. “This is tragic,” Ryan said during a Wednesday morning appearance on "Fox & Friends. " "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Mitt Romney and I are very clear on this…. What is so tragic about this is that this is one of the few issues where the Republican Party and the Democratic Party agreed.”  “Our two party platforms were emphatic about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, the issues surrounding the right of return, and Hamas," he said.  The status of Jerusalem, which is the legal capital of Israel, is a central point of dispute in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Among the functions when the Democratic National Convention gavels open Tuesday night -- listen to speeches, wear funny hats, root, root, root for the home team -- is the adoption of the party's platform. The document, a nonbinding statement of principles, matters a great deal to an exceedingly small number of people, who spend long stretches of time indoors niggling over the finer points of a manifesto that will be gnored by the vast majority of Americans. Bob Dole, nothing less than the Republican Party's 1996 presidential nominee, famously said on the eve of his party's convention that he hadn't bothered reading the GOP platform and wouldn't be bound by whatever it said.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In their 2012 platform, Democrats left out a passage from their 2008 party document affirming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - a charged issue that gave Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney an opening to push his argument that he would be a stronger supporter of the Jewish state than President Obama. The topic of Jerusalem is a flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian relations: while the city is the country's legal capital, it is also where Palestinians want to locate the capital of an independent state.

TAMPA, Fla. - Trying to shift the nation's political attention back to the GOP's preferred battleground - jobs and the economy - House Speaker John A. Boehner said Republicans will retain, if not expand, their hold on the House. Boehner's bullish outlook comes as Democrats are attacking rank-and-file lawmakers for their votes to overhaul Medicare under Paul Ryan's plan and linking them to colleague Todd Akin's remarks that pregnancy rarely results from “legitimate rape.” “Most of them are in better shape than I would have guessed,” the Ohio Republican said Monday in a wide-ranging interview hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

TAMPA, Fla. - It didn't take long for strains within the Republican Party to surface Monday as national delegates got down to work on a final draft of the party platform, one week before the nominating convention opens. Ron Paul delegates are making a diligent effort to wedge the defeated presidential candidate's libertarian ideas into the party document. Among them: curbing the power of the Federal Reserve, enhancing the constitutional rights of individuals and opposing the overseas role of U.S. military forces.

Tad Szulc ("How Can 29 Million People Be Politically Invisible?" Opinion, July 26) must have attended a different Democratic National Convention than I did and read a different platform. Contrary to his assertions, more than two Latinos made it to the podium and Latino concerns on civil rights, immigration, education, English-only, Puerto Rico and other issues were addressed in the party platform. More important, the Clinton-Gore ticket offers a real choice to Latino voters. As governor, Bill Clinton protected bilingual education from being outlawed and, in stark contrast to the Bush Administration's mishandling of the Haitian refugee crisis, helped defuse the political maelstrom of Cuban Marielitos who had been sent to Ft. Chafee, Ark., in 1980.

Re "Taxpayer rebates planned for May as stimulus bill passes," Feb. 8 As a veteran and an American, I hope voters remember the Republican senators voting against extending benefits for the unemployed, home-heating subsidies for the elderly and benefits for our returning veterans. Their reasoning? To show party unity. What's good for America seems to have no place in their party platform. Steve Binder Oxnard -- I already know what I'll do with my $600 rebate. I'll apply it toward my $5,000 property tax bill due this year.

Just as President Obama's top campaign advisors are arguing that the prolonged GOP primary is raising controversial issues that will alienate the eventual GOP nominee from independent and swing voters in the fall, Democrats are facing a similar quandary. On Wednesday morning, the chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for the party's platform to push for the legalization of gay marriage. That's a position opposed by Obama -- though he's said his views on the issue are "evolving" -- and one that many Democrats ostensibly would not want to have highlighted a few months before the general election.

As nearly 100 new Republican lawmakers settle into their Capitol Hill digs this week, some will get a pop-in visit ? before the boxes are unpacked and the phones start ringing ? aimed at reminding them how they got there. "We want them to know that we know our folks helped them get elected and we're there for them," said Mark Meckler, whose group, Tea Party Patriots, is sending activists to visit lawmakers' offices hours after the swearing-in Wednesday of the 112th Congress. It's a pointed reminder for the new class, roughly half of which was elected with "tea party" support or echoed the movement's call for smaller government.