The Huffington Post is reporting that the rare unscripted moment occurred when convention chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, responding to a national outcry about the omissions, conducted a voice vote from the podium to revise the offensive platform. Delegates who wanted the name of God put back into the platform as well as a reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and those who did not shouted with equal velocity, causing the vote to be taken three times. When Villaraigosa declared the "yeah" votes to have won, the convention erupted in boos, a response that took party officials by surprise.
As expected, the Republican National Committee (RNC) had uploaded a video of the event to YouTube and began circulating it on Twitter.
The DNC immediately went into damage control and circulated a story that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had vetted the language of the original platform,. The statement was vehemently denied later by AIPAC officials who told reporters their organization proposed language that included Jerusalem as the capital, but that their officials never saw the final version with the name omitted.
In response to the uproar, an unnamed source told the Post that Democratic party leaders "were and continue to be exceedingly comfortable with the original language" of the platform and only reinserted God and Jerusalem because they felt "this controversy over the Jerusalem wording was distracting from their overall message."
However, by then the damage had been down. The platform wording changes, coupled with the loud booing and hissing at the convention, only reinforced the fears of many voters that the president and the Democratic party are drifting further and further away from mainstream America and a Constitution that fearlessly professes belief in the Judeo-Christian God.
Catholic League president William Donohue wasn't surprised by either of the omissions.
"Why should anyone be surprised that the mere mention of the word 'God' would send shivers down the spine of the Democratic faithful? After all, the same platform says it’s a good idea for two men to get married; the public needs to pay for all abortions; there is no demand that Hamas stop terrorism against Israelis; the public must pay for a healthcare policy it manifestly rejects; the Catholic non-profit community must fork up money to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, etc."
He concluded simply. "The Obama administration has a 'God problem'."
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