双语时事：美共和党正式提名罗姆尼为总统候选人

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Republicans formally nominated Mitt Romney on Tuesday tochallenge President Barack Obama for the White House, kickingoff their storm-delayed convention with a barrage of sharp attacks on Obama's economicleadership.The nomination sets up a two-month dash to the November 6 election, with polls showingRomney running even or slightly behind the Democratic president.Finally opening the festivities after a storm threat delayed the convention by a day, Republicanscondemned Obama's economic record and reminded voters of the country's stubbornly highunemployment rate and ballooning budget deficit.Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, warned that re-electing Obamawould mean "four more years of failure."
       

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"We have a message for America: Elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and they'll get Americaworking again," he said to loud cheers. "We must send America's comeback team to Washington."
The first night will be capped by prime-time speeches by Romney's wife, Ann, and New JerseyGovernor Chris Christie.
Romney, who had originally planned to stay out of the spotlight until Thursday night when heaccepts his party's nomination, made an early appearance in the Florida host city to be on handfor his wife's turn at the podium.
Republicans hope to make an aggressive argument to voters to replace Obama while being carefulto avoid the appearance of unseemly celebration as New Orleans and swathes of the Gulf Coastwere under threat from Hurricane Isaac.
Romney is struggling to overcome a "likability gap" with the president and refute Democrats' efforts to paint him as a job-killing former private equity executive who is out of touch with middleAmerica.
Before the roll call of the states to nominate Romney, chanting supporters of libertariancongressman Ron Paul of Texas briefly disrupted the convention in a protest against a decision tounseat 10 Paul delegates from Maine and institute rules changes they believe will weaken theirpower in the next election cycle.
The changes, approved by the convention on voice votes, will bind delegates to the results of astatewide vote and reduce the role of smaller state-level conventions where Paul had success.
"We were disenfranchised by our party. We won't participate with this chaos," said RussellMontgomery, 52, of St. George, Maine. "We won't legitimize this fiasco. This is as bad as the otherparty - the corruption."