2008 DEMOCRAT PLATFORM -- WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?

Interesting article on looking back at what the 2008 Democrat platform accomplished in the area of science and technology.  Some of  the highlights:

1. The platform promised more spending on research and development, but spending on these key areas have gone down.  For what it’s worth, in constant dollars total federal R&D spending peaked under the George W. Bush administration in 2007 at $154.4 billion. 
2. Sex education.  The number of abortions has remained stable for the last decade.
3. Embryonic stem cells can be used in research but support for cloning is not supported.
4. Abortion is protected.
5. The 2008 platform said America "could not drill its way to energy independence.  President Obama proudly pointed out in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention last week that the use of renewable energy has doubled under his administration and that thousands of Americans have jobs building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. In addition, the U.S. has cut its imports of oil by 1 million barrels per day while opening up “millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we'll open more.”  With gas at $4 a gallon there would be a decline in imports, but it appears drilling is okay now with all of these acres being opened up to oil exploration.
6.  What about drilling? President Obama correctly claims to have opened millions of acres to drilling for hydrocarbons. But how does that compare with previous administrations? In its first three years, according to the Bureau of Land Management, the Bush administration leased 8.8 million acres for oil exploration and production, compared to 5.3 million for the Obama administration. The Clinton administration leased 11.4 million acres in its first three years.
7. New wells drilled on federal land.  The first three years of the Bush administration saw 9,276 new wells drilled, whereas under the Obama administration 9,693 wells were.
8.  The 2008 platform called for 5 million green energy jobs.This goal is not being met -- look at the unemployment statistics and firms like Solyndra which have gone belly up.And then there are t he wind turbines being built in China!
9. The 2012 Democratic Platform declares, “We are expediting the approval process to build out critical oil and gas lines essential to transporting our energy for consumers.” Really? It is true that the Obama Administration has approved the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline?
10.  No support for space exploration.
11. They are still working on climate change policies and green house gases in the 2012 platform. . .but As it happens, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are back down to their level in 1992. This is largely not due to Obama administration green energy policies, but because fracking has produced an abundant supply of cheap natural gas.