Obama, With a Nod to Clinton

DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM

Obama, With a Nod to Clinton

Democrats settled yesterday on a party platform that includes concessions to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, while at the same time showing the clear imprint of Sen. Barack Obama on the party.

On health care, one of the few major policy contrasts between Clinton and Obama, the party platform committee meeting in Pittsburgh settled on language that echoed the ambition of Clinton's health-care plan while not embracing its most contentious element. Clinton's plan would have required all to obtain health insurance, with subsidies for those who could not afford it, on the theory that requiring coverage for healthy Americans who otherwise would not buy it would reduce costs for everyone else.

Obama's plan includes subsidies to make it easier to obtain coverage, but no individual mandate, which he argues would be a burden for those who cannot afford coverage. Clinton said Obama is betraying the Democratic goal of universality; Obama said his is a more practical route.

The platform's language declares that the party is "united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care," seeming to align with Clinton's goal of universality. But it did not specify how that goal would be reached, leaving it fairly close to Obama's own call for "universal" health coverage, which seeks affordable health care for all Americans but does not require them to have insurance.

The clearest concession to Clinton came in the platform's demand for fair treatment of women, included in response to many supporters' beliefs that she was a victim of sexist portrayals by the media.

Otherwise, the platform reflects some of the modulated language on contentious issues that Obama has tried to adopt in his campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain. On Iraq, it states that Democrats "expect to complete redeployment within 16 months," leaving more wiggle room than Obama did in the primaries.

It also seeks to "work with Canada and Mexico to amend" the North American Free Trade Agreement, softer language than Obama's earlier call for possible unilateral action.

-- Alec MacGillis