1.  Republican platform backs off on some conservative issues to please McCain.   The Republican Party approved a platform that was very conservative on some issues, while moderating its views on other matters to accommodate its presidential nominee, Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

The 2008 GOP National Platform calls for constitutional amendments to protect the lives of unborn children and to prohibit homosexual marriages.  It also pledges to ban the destruction of human embryos for research.

The platform also pledges to end all earmarks in which individual legislators are allowed to specify exactly how some federal funds will be spent in their districts and states.  Opposition to excessive federal spending, including the use of earmarks, has been a major theme of the McCain campaign.

By contrast, the GOP opposes amnesty for illegal aliens, a position at odds with both McCain and President Bush.

However, the delegates deleted the 2004 platform language in support of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.  McCain has long been opposed to this proposal.

Furthermore, the GOP platform breaks with previous positions and buys into the environmental concerns about global warming.  It says:

"The same human activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.  Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth."

McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have cosponsored legislation to cap carbon emissions.

The Associated Press reported that the GOP was "trying not to stray too far from McCain's views, while also satisfying the conservative base."

2.  Republicans adopt rules prohibiting most early presidential primaries.  Already planning for the 2012 presidential race, Republicans have adopted rules to discourage most early primaries.

Except for the Iowa caucuses and the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, states could not hold presidential contests before the first Tuesday in March.  If a state breaks this rule, it would lose half of its delegates to the national convention.

The effect of the rule would force about half of the states to move their primaries to a later date than they were in 2008.

3.  McCain support for Bush 95% of the time is meaningless, says Congressional Quarterly.  Throughout the Democratic National Convention, speaker after speaker attempted to link Senator John McCain to President Bush, claiming that McCain backed Bush 95% of the time.

That statistic is based on a study of voting records by Congressional Quarterly.  But the publication says the 95% statistic is meaningless.

Since McCain spent so much time campaigning for president, he cast relatively few votes in the Senate and cannot be fairly rated.  One major area where he did vote was on the immigration issue, in which Bush, McCain, and the Democrats were all in agreement on amnesty for illegal aliens.