OMG at the Dem Convention

The Democratic Party's convention seems to have been success, if polling on the presidential race is a measure.  According to CNN, the convention contributed to Obama's four point bump, giving him a slight 6 point lead over Romney.  Still, there was one rather bizarre, and embarrassing moment.  The GOP VP candidate, Paul Ryan, and the usual Fox personalities, criticized the Democrats for leaving out mention of "God" in their platform, as well as a statement affirming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  In response, Presidential Obama and other party leaders ordered the convention to rectify this lack of support for God and Israel.  The convention chairman, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for a voice vote on these changes to the platform.  A change requires a 2/3 majority.  Clearly, if you watch the video, the delegates were divided fairly evenly.  Villaraigosa tried three times, and on the third try, simply declared that a 2/3 had been reached.  It was a foregone conclusion anyway.  As Jon Stewart pointed out, before the vote was finished, the teleprompter was already showing that the convention had approved the changes, leading Stewart to say "On the bright side, we have finally discovered evidence of the Democratic voter fraud that Republicans are always complaining about."

I'm not sure why Demos walked into what seems to be a trap.  The Republicans would continue their veiled 'Democrats-hate-God' narrative either way.  If no amendment, then clearly the Demos are too secularly humanist to even mention the name.  If an amendment, then the GOP would cast it as a superficial move, a cynical ploy, and that indeed is the way it's panning out, especially given the way the platform was amended.  And all those boos from the floor--when the amendments were declared passed--will mean that lots of Demos don't really believe in God anyway (Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody is positively gleeful over this).

So I have no idea what Democratic party leaders were thinking.  They're not going to further mobilize the base by adding God, or that narrow slice of undecideds, especially with this simple insertion:

We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.

It may just be, though, that party leaders thought a reference to God appropriate.  Though some Republicans and media allies paint the Democrats as anti-God, there are Democrats, believe it or not--like the President--who are religious.  See Amy Sullivan's piece for more on this.