The platform also calls for constitutional amendments to ban gay marriages and abortions, and it upholds the administration’s policy limiting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to lines that were in existence as of three years ago. It endorses doubling federal funding to promote abstinence as a family planning method.

...the 38th quadrennial Republican convention is dominated by conservatives. The platform mirrored President Bush's record and wishes; some right-wing objections were brushed aside, but mostly it was the dwindling band of party moderates who were shut out of the process. ...What was adopted is a decidedly conservative document in every area; Sunday, on "Meet the Press," Rudy Giuliani was on the defensive answering his disagreements with major parts of this document. One example: it not only supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages but opposes civil unions, and the benefits given by many localities and corporations to such partners. ...(why Guiliani, McCain, and Schwarzenegger?)...HERE'S WHY: Sen. McCain and former Mayor Giuliani are off the charts. In last week's Journal/NBC News poll, they were ranked the most popular political figures in America. They bring almost no downsides....George W. Bush has a net negative rating with these swing voters.

In the tight 2004 race, no group is more important to Bush than evangelicals and Christian conservatives. These voters are at the heart of a campaign strategy of maximizing turnout among constituencies already disposed to back the president.