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Aug 26, 2008 7:30 pm US/Eastern
Republicans Plan While Democrats Meet
MINNEAPOLIS (CBS) ―
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Sen. John McCain will accept his party's nomination for president during the Republican National Convention held at the the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 1-4, 2008.
William Thomas Cain/Karen Bleier/Getty Images
While Democrats convene in Denver, Republicans are meeting in Minneapolis, where they're hashing out their party's platform ahead of next week's convention in St. Paul.
The GOP platform committee is debating election principles influenced by their conservative base as well as by presidential candidate John McCain.
It's taking a tough line on abortion and immigration while weighing an energy policy that would acknowledge - if grudgingly - the human imprint on climate change.
Nothing written into the platform will tie McCain's hands in the campaign, and it's questionable whether he'd pay much attention to it. Presidential candidates often don't.
But the two days of platform hearings are focusing the party on a review of what it stands for and exposing familiar divisions between conservative and moderate elements.
On the day Hillary Clinton is slated to address the Democratic National convention here, John McCain's campaign has released a new ad that uses Clinton's actual "3am" spot from the primaries and includes a quote from Clinton at that time favorable comparing McCain to Barack Obama.
The ad opens with the familiar lines, "it's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?" Over pictures of missile launches and terrorist training, the announcer intones, "uncertainty dangerous aggression, rogue nations, radicalism." Then the ad carries a clip from Clinton in the primaries, saying, "I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And, Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." The ad ends, "Hillary's right. John McCain for president." The campaign says the ad will run in key states.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
