CLEVELAND — Supporters of Ba rack Obama and Hillary Clinton came together in this Rust Belt city over the weekend, putting on a united face as they completed a draft of the Democratic platform, the party’s broad statement of principles.
The 44-page document reinforces Obama’s theme of change but acknowledges Clinton’s differing view on health-care reform and her supporters’ desire to blast sexism in the media. And the draft platform draws from the suggestions of 22,000 Americans who attended more than 1,600 “Listening to America” events around the country.
The document now will go before the 186-member platform committee, which will meet in Pittsburgh this weekend. Ultimately, the platform must be approved at the party’s national convention in Denver at the end of the month.
Democrats who gathered for the three-day weekend drafting session in Cleveland consistently sought to play down any rift between the Obama and Clinton camps.
“We’re one big, happy family,” said Fabian Nunez, a California assemblyman on the platform-drafting committee.
Nunez argued in favor of Clinton’s plan on universal health care, which differs from Obama’s in that it would require all Americans to purchase health insurance. Obama has said Americans will buy insurance if it’s affordable, and the two sides added language agreeing to disagree.
“While there are differing approaches within the party about how best to achieve the commitment of universal coverage, we stand united to achieve this fundamental objective through the legislative process,” read the language added to the platform.
Michael Yaki, national platform director, said party officials were in constant contact with the Clinton campaign about language in the platform.
“We want her (Clinton) to be part of this unified platform, so we reached out to them to make sure we have this unified front,” Yaki said.
In a statement, the Obama campaign said things had gone swimmingly.
“Sen. Clinton has been working with us on drafting the platform,” said the statement from Obama spokeswoman Shannon Gilson, “and the Democratic Party is unified to bring about the real change we need in order to implement a foreign policy that sees beyond a war that should have never been authorized, to build an economy that rewards work, not just wealth, to improve our schools, to renew our commitment to science and innovation, to finally put us on a path toward energy independence and to give all Americans access to affordable universal health care.”
The platform modified the party’s stance on some issues from 2004. On Iraq, for example, the party had said that “people of goodwill disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq.”
But the 2008 platform draft adopts a much tougher tone, calling it “ill-considered” and a “strategic blunder” that never should have happened.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, the chairwoman of the drafting committee, said the change was reflective of information about the war that has since come to light.
“The facts are manifest that it was a blunder,” she said.
Some Clinton supporters wanted the drafting committee to add language scolding the media for what they saw as sexism against their candidate. The platform draft includes language that says “standing up for our country means standing up against sexism, whether voiced by the media, our opponents or our friends” and says the party is committed to “combatting the sexism that still pervades” the U.S.
Democrats this year took the historic step of allowing thousands of ordinary Americans to contribute to the platform by holding local events, ranging from just a few gathered around a coffee table to hundreds meeting in public parks.
Fifty-five such events were held throughout Colorado.
Yaki said one of the most common themes that emerged was the desire for a “Manhattan” or “Apollo” project to address energy independence. Those terms, used by many local platform groups, are in the document.
Yaki said more than 92 percent of the local platform groups favored some form of universal health care.
Similarly, 98 percent of the groups proposed eliminating or amending the No Child Left Behind law, Yaki said.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
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Obama lobbies to restore Fla., Mich. votes
WASHINGTON — Now that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for president, he wants convention delegates from Florida and Michigan to have full voting rights at the party’s national convention.
Obama sent a letter Sunday to the party’s credentials committee, asking members to reinstate the delegates’ voting rights.
The delegates were originally stripped because the two states violated party rules by holding primaries before Feb. 5. The delegates from each state were given half-votes in May.
Obama’s former Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, had won both primaries, though Obama’s name was not on the Michigan ballot and neither candidate campaigned in Florida.
“I believe party unity calls for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be able to participate fully alongside the delegates from the other states and territories,” Obama said in the letter.
