MAVERICK HAS THEM EATING OUT OF HIS HAND (HOOF?):

Republican Platform Vast Improvement Over 2004 (Donald Devine, 09/01/2008, Human Events)

Conservatives are thrilled with the platform just adopted in Minneapolis by the Republican National Convention Committee on Resolutions -- as the platform committee is formally known -- and which will be submitted for formal adoption to the full convention this week in St. Paul.

The 2008 platform truly reflects the beliefs of the party and its activist base and is significantly more conservative than the one four years before. The working copy of the 2008 platform was drafted by party staff without the heavy-handedness often imposed by presidential nominees. In 2004, many activist conservatives were upset at the high-handed tactics of the campaign organization and the many platform deviations from basic party principles, especially on domestic issues.

That was not the case in 2008. The draft began as a conservative document and was moved even further to the right by the various amendments adopted by the 112-member platform committee, whose representatives are chosen locally by the elected delegates to the convention. Because the party base is conservative, the document was conservative.