Platform Could Be Messaging Minefield For GOP
Source: TPM
TAMPA, Fla. — Voters are interested in the Republican Party platform — a development that could actually be bad for Republicans.
-snip-
But this year’s platform, versions of which have leaked to the press, features a plethora of politically perilous planks touching on social issues that the Romney campaign hopes to downplay in favor of the economy.
A new Pew poll released Monday shows that over half of voters are interested in learning about the GOP platform during the convention, a higher percentage than those who expressed interest in the week’s main event: Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech.
The most notable move is the Republican platform committee’s decision to include a ban on abortion that doesn’t outline exceptions for rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother. Romney has said his campaign’s own position includes these exceptions, despite running mate Paul Ryan’s hardline take on issue. The rape exception has turned into an explosive political issue ever since Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin falsely claimed in an interview that women have biological defenses against pregnancy from “legitimate rape.” An ABC poll last month showed fewer than two in 10 Americans support a no-exceptions ban on abortion.
-snip-
Read more: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/platform-could-be-messaging-minefield-for-gop.php
The TPM article also explains how the platform undercuts Romney's attempt to muddy the debate on Medicare and distract from the Ryan plan, since it " bluntly calls for transforming Medicare into a voucher system, explaining in detail how proposals Romney and Ryan have championed would replace the popular entitlement with an entirely different program."
= new reply since forum marked as read
