HILADELPHIA - Bob Dole, the GOP presidential candidate in 1996, showed his respect for the Republican platform when he said he didn't even plan to read it. Most candidates skim the party statement of principles and then ignore it.
It's different with Governor George W. Bush of Texas. He decided and then made sure the platform would be a vision statement and road map for his ''compassionate conservative'' presidential campaign and a rallying point for a party that Bush insists will be unified and winning in November.
Yesterday, without debate, audible dissent, or a prime-time audience, delegates to the Republican National Convention approved the Bush blueprint that commits the party to ''bold education reforms'' and ''a vision of a welcoming society in which all have a place.'' The only grumbling came from supporters of abortion rights, who accused the Bush campaign of blocking their last-ditch efforts to put that issue before the full convention.
Ann Stone, chairman of Republicans for Choice, said, ''We ran into a brick wall called the Bush campaign'' when the group tried overnight Sunday to get the platform committee to add language acknowledging different views within the GOP on abortion. Other hard-line party positions taken in 1996 - calling for the elimination of the Department of Education and denial of citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants - had been changed in the 2000 platform at Bush's urging.
''The bottom line is that the platform is moderate on everything but this issue,'' Stone said yesterday.
The Bush campaign denied it played any role in thwarting Stone's group, which raises money for GOP candidates who support abortion rights. ''Governor Bush's position [in favor of] the prolife language was clear, but the decision to keep the prolife language in the platform was made by the delegates,'' said Ray Sullivan, a Bush spokesman.
Elaine Little of Pelham, Ala., a member of the Republican Coalition for Life, said the platform, which calls for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, an end to federal family-planning services, and the appointment of judges who oppose abortion, reflects the will of the GOP. Republicans who support abortion rights need to ''get with the program,'' she said.
''I thought theirs was the effort of sore losers,'' said Little, who is on the platform committee. ''Bush's advisers stood right by us, saying the governor did not want a jot or tittle in the abortion plank changed.''
Stone said she would urge like-minded Republicans to stay in the party, continue their fight, and support Bush because she doesn't believe as president he would push to end a woman's right to an abortion.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, whose pro-choice positions probably ruined his chances to be Bush's running mate, said Bush's campaign will be about education, the economy, and the environment, not abortion. In fact, the platform's preamble, which sounds like a Bush speech, does not mention the word.
''The platform tries to set a tone that is different, better, and more positive than in the past,'' Ridge said. ''At the end of the day, this election is going to be about the kind of leader we want. I dare say there will be very few votes cast on the academic basis of the language of the platform.''
Representative Tom Campbell, a California Republican who is running against incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein for the US Senate, supports abortion rights and wanted the platform to reflect a diversity of opinion. A recent Associated Press poll found that only 15 percent of the California GOP delegation embraced the platform language on abortion. It states: ''As a country, we must keep our pledge to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence. That is why we say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.''
''I have never seen a candidate win or lose on a platform,'' said Campbell, adding that he questioned the need for such a document when a voters can get all the information they need on individual candidates from the Internet or cable TV. ''Platforms are a holdover from another era.''
But Eddie Mahe, a longtime GOP consultant, said that as a consequence of Bush's involvement in writing the platform, making it the foundation of his campaign, and insisting that the party in 2000 stand for something, Republican candidates nationwide can use it as a benchmark.
''It's a uniting document, the tone is positive, and it isn't just a litany of idealistic principles,'' Mahe said. ''You will see a lot of our candidates referring to the platform as a way to tell voters, `This is what we are about.'''
Mahe said GOP candidates can ''walk away'' from the parts of the platform with which they disagree. But Darlee Crockett, a prochoice Republican activist in San Diego, said conservatives will use it to intimidate moderates.
''They want to get rid of us,'' Crockett said, noting how some delegates to the GOP state convention in California wore buttons with a red slash through the acronym ''RINO'' - Republicans in Name Only.
