A draft of the 2008 National GOP Platform has been made. Bloomberg.com provides a good analysis of the platform changes. I have broken down the issues with very brief summaries of proposed platform changes, as follows.

ABORTION: The platform committee was unwilling to compromise on its abortion plank to accommodate John McCain’s view of the issue. Instead, the language was kept the same, which supports banning abortion in all cases without exception.

GAMBLING: What was a great victory for the online poker industry yesterday, became a telling defeat for the industry today. Poker advocates berated language in the Republican platform that called for a strong prohibition of Internet gambling. And yesterday, that language was removed from the platform and the industry fell at ease once again with the Republican Party. Today, the language was put back into the platform.

GAY MARRIAGE: The platform draft still calls for a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage.

GLOBAL WARMING: While the 2004 platform did not mention global warming, the draft document Republican delegates took up today in committee includes a one-page section “addressing climate change responsibly.” For the first time, the platform acknowledges that human activity has contributed to global warming: “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.” The plank also says: “Republicans caution against the doomsday climate-change scenarios peddled by aficionados of centralized command-and-control government.” It calls technology and markets the keys to reducing carbon emissions without damaging the economy. McCain has said addressing climate change would be a top priority if he’s elected. He supports mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions and a cap-and-trade system to help bring that about.

HOUSING CRISIS: In a reference to the housing crisis, the document supports “timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis” without encouraging people to borrow more than they can afford. There is no mention in the draft of the current credit crisis or turmoil in the financial markets. The document was altered in committee to add language opposing government bailouts of private institutions: “Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself,” the text now says.

IMMIGRATION: The draft platform states opposition to any plan that would provide amnesty for people in the country illegally. This is a change from the 2004 document, which endorsed a guest worker program. “The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity,” the new platform says.

STEM CELLS: Like the 2004 document, this year’s text opposes the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research.