DENVER—Democrats adopted a platform Monday that commits the party to Barack Obama’s policy ideas, but also credits his primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton with putting “18 million cracks in the highest glass ceiling.”
The phrasing refers to the 18 million votes Clinton got in the primary.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gaveled the platform through after a voice vote of delegates assembled in the hall on its first afternoon.
The platform reasserts Obama’s promise of health care for all, energy rebates to struggling families, pension subsidies, a crackdown on predatory lenders, higher taxes for families earning over $250,000, tax breaks for others, billions for economic stimulus and “direct high-level diplomacy, without preconditions,” in the case of Iran.
On Iraq, the platform states that Democrats “expect to complete redeployment within 16 months,” reflecting Obama’s time frame but not the tone of certainty he brought to it when he was running in the primaries.
The plank in support of abortion rights is even stronger than usual. “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right,” it says.
Gone is the phrase from the past that abortions should be safe, legal and “rare.”
The party also pledges to ensure access to adoption programs, prenatal and postnatal care and income support programs for expectant mothers who need the help.
