Republican platform released – reaches #98,642 on Amazon

For those unfamiliar with national political conventions, it’s not all about speeches and parties. Well, alright… for most of the attendees it really is all about speeches, parties and the ability to wear goofy hats on national TV. One of the agenda items is to write and vote on the party platform. But who will take the time to read this?

The party platform – Wikipedia actually refers to it as a manifesto – defines what the party stands for and believes in. I guess you could call it a project plan for the next few years until it comes time to come up with another one. There are no specifics of course, but for conservatives, you’d think that the U.S. Constitution and it’s amendments would be a good starting point.

Michelle Malkin reminds us about the release of the platform yesterday and covers the immigration and national security front, but since the document is only 67 pages, I’d suggest that you take the opportunity to review the full document online. Heck, it’s free.

Doesn’t free stuff always have an unlimited demand? In the case of this particular document, I doubt it. Anyway…

Here’s a few lines that I found to be in line with conservative ideals.

The federal government collects $2.7 trillion a year from American families and businesses. That’s $7.4 billion a day. Even worse, it spends over $3 trillion a year: $8.2 billion a day. Why? Largely because those who created this bloated government will not admit a single mistake or abolish a single program.

…

Any legislation to increase domestic exploration, drilling and production must minimize any protracted legal challenges that could unreasonably delay or even preclude actual production. We oppose any efforts that would permanently block access to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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Republicans will pursue dramatic increases in the use of all forms of safe, affordable, reliable — and clean — nuclear power.

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While we grow our supplies, we must also reduce our demand — not by changing our lifestyles but by putting the free market to work and taking advantage of technological breakthroughs.

Not too bad, but unfortunately the platform does not cover the real problem – the federal government is involved with programs and services that are not within the scope of their charter – the Constitution.

Of course, there are two pages of information on climate change in there.

What we really need is a simple, well defined, Contract with America II that supports conservative principals.

I have not had the time to review the complete document – and some of it looks pretty good – but will the McCain / Palin ticket follow the guiding principals of the document?