The Lead

What do you think about the flap over including mention of God and Jerusalem in the DNC platform? From the Los Angeles Times:

In a rare moment of actual convention drama, Democratic officials reinserted language back into their official platform Wednesday evening that invokes God and affirms the role of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, trying to defuse Republican attacks over the party’s stances.

But the maneuver may have backfired, infuriating delegates who objected to the changes.

The new amendments were introduced by former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and put to a vote by convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa, who was forced to call for three voice votes in an effort to pass the changes.

“I, uh, I guess I’ll do that one more time,” Villaraigosa said after a second vote of delegates in the Time Warner Cable Arena resulted equally loud “ayes” and “nos.”

“You've got to rule, and then you've got to let them do what they're gonna do,” a woman standing to his left could be heard saying in a feed carried by C-SPAN.

After a third attempt, Villaraigosa declared that the amendments had passed.

“In the opinion of the chair, two-thirds have voted in the affirmative,” he said, drawing large boos and shouts of objections.

The action kicked off the second night of the Democratic National Convention and came as Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have seized on the platform omissions.

“I think their having removed purposefully God from their platform suggests a party which is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of American people,” Romney told Fox News on Wednesday. “I think this party is veering further and further away into an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize.”

Four years ago, the Democrats included the word God in their official platform, writing, “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

That line was originally omitted from the 2012 document and reinserted Wednesday night.

“As an ordained United Methodist minister, I am here to attest and affirm that our faith and belief in God is central to the American story, and informs the values we've expressed in our party's platform,” Strickland said in introducing the amendments. “In addition, President Obama recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and our party's platform should as well."

Read full story here.

Comments (8)

I can't imagine how religious beliefs or opinions about the legal status of foreign countries have a place in any American political party's platform, nor do I see how this will do anything to defuse GOP attacks.

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 6, 2012 8:16 AM

The Democrats’ primary accomplishment in this sorry incident has been to show that they can be just as undemocratic as anyone. Apparently, the delegates have more good sense than their leaders.

Asserting that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is both untrue and bad foreign policy. I guess putting Jerusalem in the platform was intended to take the issue off the table during the campaign. This makes some political sense, though it harms America’s reputation abroad.

The injection of God into the platform is cynical pandering. (Is there any other kind?) It plays to those who insist that the U.S. is a “Christian nation.” In fact, America is a secular state, and, God willing, will remain such.

Posted by Lionel Deimel | September 6, 2012 8:42 AM

I haven't been watching the convention, but just saw footage of this incident online. Villaraigosa's behavior was shameful - inexcusable. Rather than defuse GOP criticism, it opens up the Dems to much more substantial criticism cross-party.

Query for editors: The comment box says that you may use HTML tags for style, but neither the now-deprecated s tag nor its supposed substitute, the del tag seem to work. If this isn't an oversight, could you please provide a list of functioning tags?

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 6, 2012 2:00 PM

a href for inserting a url works

I for italics and b for bold

not sure what tags you want to use beyond those.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 6, 2012 2:06 PM

As usual, Lionel Deimel's understanding of history and politics is fictional. Where was Israel's capitol from its founding in 1948? And why should an entity that began its existence in 1948 and only lasted until 1967 be elevated into an Athens or a Rome?

That said, since optics are everything, revisiting this issue at all was a major mistake. Party platforms don't mean much of anything anymore and the Democrats should have let sleeping dogs lie. By itself, this issue wouldn't have mattered either way.

But revisiting this issue, and particularly the way it was handled, makes Democrats look weak, communicates that the party doesn't really mean what it says, puts the delegates in a position where they have to vote against the measure and be seen on video(which will be played over and over and has already been turned into ads) as "booing God" when the result is invented from the chair.

Funny. I used to think that only the Republicans were that dumb.

Christopher - if you leave off the "as usual" part -- your argument would be stronger rather than just an attack on someone -- ~ed.

Posted by Christopher Johnson | September 6, 2012 2:45 PM

Thanks, Ann. By the way, that link in your 2:04 comment doesn't work.

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 6, 2012 2:51 PM

Good thing as it was a bad link - here is the one from Killing the Buddha

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 6, 2012 3:19 PM

Thanks again, Ann.

I didn't quite understand the reference to Tim LaHaye's book in the article, so I googled it. Yuck.. Jesus has really bad PR.

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 6, 2012 3:47 PM

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