双语新闻：奥巴马强势反攻得分

英语自学网

For President Obama, Punch, Punch, AnotherPunch
        　　He waited all of 45 seconds to make clear he came not justready for a fight but ready to pick one.
        　　他等了整整45秒钟之后表明；他不仅准备好迎战，还随时准备发起攻击。
        　　President Obama, who concluded that he was “too polite” in hisfirst debate with Mitt Romney, made sure no one would say that after their second. He interrupted, he scolded, he filibustered, he shook his head.
        　　认为自己在与米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)的首场辩论中“过于客气”的奥巴马总统，确保了第二场辩论结束后没人会得出这个结论。他时而打断对方，时而表示谴责，时而滔滔不绝不给罗姆尼讲话的机会，时而摇头表示否定。
        　　He tried to talk right over Mr. Romney, who tried to talk over him back. The president who waitedpatiently for his turn last time around forced his way into Mr. Romney’s time this time. At onepoint, he squared off with Mr. Romney face to face, almost chest to chest, in the middle of thestage, as if they were roosters in a ring.
        　　他试图插入罗姆尼的讲话，罗姆尼也反过来试图打断他的发言。在上次辩论中，总统耐心地等待着自己讲话的时间，而这次，在罗姆尼讲话时，奥巴马会生硬地抢白。有一刻，他同罗姆尼在舞台中央陷入面对面的对峙，两人胸口几乎抵到一起，像是赛场上的一对斗鸡。
        　　“What Governor Romney said just isn’t true.”
        　　“罗姆尼州长说的根本不是事实。”
        　　“Not true, Governor Romney, not true.”
        　　“不是这样的，罗姆尼州长，事实不是这样。”
        　　“What you’re saying is just not true.”
        　　“你说的根本不符合事实。”
        　　For a president teetering on the edge of a single term, making a more forceful case at HofstraUniversity on Long Island on Tuesday night could hardly have been more imperative. Thirteendays after he took presidential decorum to a Xanax extreme, he tucked away a dinner of steakand potatoes and then went out on stage with plenty of red meat for anxious supporters.
        　　对于一个面临在第一个任期结束后就下台的危险的总统来说，周二晚在长岛霍夫斯塔大学(HofstraUniversity)举行的辩论中更有力地陈述自己的观点，实在是极为关键的。13天前，他曾把总统的大度仪态发挥到像是吃了镇静药的极端程度，这一次，他大快朵颐地吃下一盘牛排和土豆晚餐，然后登上舞台，在焦虑的支持者面前展现了充沛的斗志。
        　　Whether it will decisively reroute the course of the campaign remains to be seen, but the presidentemerged from the encounter having settled nerves within his panicky party and claiming a newchance to frame the three weeks until Election Day.
        　　此举能否彻底扭转选情，仍有待观察。但是奥巴马经此一役，至少安抚了民主党内的恐慌情绪，同时得到了一个框定最后三周竞选的新机会。
        　　Heading into the evening, the Obama camp said that he needed at least a draw to mute thecommotion over the first debate and drain some of the potential drama from the final meetingnext Monday. But the risk, of course, was that an acerbic confrontation could turn off the veryswing voters he covets.
        　　晚间辩论即将开始时，奥巴马阵营称，奥巴马至少得打个平手，才能平息首场辩论引发的不安，并让下周一的最后一场辩论减少一些戏剧性交锋。当然风险在于，如此激烈的对垒，可能使那些他本想争取的观望选民产生反感。
        　　The strategy for Tuesday night was clear: undercut Mr. Romney’s character and credibility byportraying him as lying about his true positions on issues like taxes and abortion. Time and again, Mr. Obama questioned whether the man on stage with him was the same “severely conservative” candidate who tacked right in the Republican primaries.
        　　周二晚上的战略非常明显：攻击罗姆尼的性格和可信度，具体来说就是称其在税收和堕胎等问题上所言不实，对自己的真实立场不说实话。奥巴马一次又一次地问道，与他同台辩论的这个男子，是不是那个在共和党初选期间迎合右翼势力的“严重保守”的候选人？
        　　He painted Mr. Romney as a tool of big oil who is soft on China, hard on immigrants, politically crasson Libya and two-faced on guns and energy. He deployed many of the attack lines that wentunused in Denver, going after Mr. Romney’s business record, his personal income taxes and, in thedebate’s final minutes, his comments about the 47 percent of Americans he once deemed toodependent on government.
        　　奥巴马称，罗姆尼是大型石油公司的工具，对中国软弱，对移民强硬，在利比亚问题上缺乏政治智慧，在枪支管制和能源问题上是个两面派。奥巴马用了许多在丹佛大学举行的首场辩论中没有用上的攻击角度，抓住罗姆尼的商业记录和个人所得税问题不放。在辩论即将结束时，奥巴马还提醒观众，罗姆尼曾说47%的美国人过于依赖政府。
        　　“Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan,” Mr. Obama charged. “He has a one-pointplan,” which is to help the rich, he said.
        　　以攻为守的奥巴马说，“罗姆尼州长没有一份五点计划，他只有一份一点计划，”那就是帮助有钱人。
        　　He mocked Mr. Romney by noting that he once closed a coal plant as the governor ofMassachusetts. “Now suddenly you’re a big champion of coal,” he said.
        　　他提到罗姆尼在担任马萨诸塞州州长时，曾经关闭了一家煤矿。他说，“现在你摇身一变，变成了煤炭业的大力支持者。”
            
            

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        　　As for trade, he said, “Governor, you’re the last person who’s going to get tough on China.”
        　　提到贸易问题时，他说，“州长先生，就算全世界人都对中国强硬，你都不会对中国强硬的。”
        　　And he pressed Mr. Romney for not disclosing how he would pay for his tax and deficit reductiongoals. “We haven’t heard from the governor any specifics beyond Big Bird and eliminating fundingfor Planned Parenthood,” he said.
        　　他还追问罗姆尼，说罗姆尼没有披露他要怎样实现减税和降低赤字的目标。他说，“州长先生除了说要削减公共电视网(PBS)财政补助，取消对计划生育联合会(Planned Parenthood)的资助外，什么细节都没告诉我们。”
        　　Mr. Romney held his own and gave as good as he got, presenting Mr. Obama as a failed presidentwho has piled on trillions of dollars of debt, left millions of Americans without work, bungled securityfor American personnel in Libya, done nothing to reform entitlement programs and deserted amiddle class “crushed under the policies of a president who has not understood what it takes toget the economy working again.”
        　　罗姆尼稳住阵脚，并全力发动反击。他把奥巴马说成是一位失败的总统，给国家带来数万亿美元的额外债务，让数百万美国人失业，在美国驻利比亚外交人员的安全问题上搞砸，在改革应享权益方面一事无成，还抛弃了中产阶级，称美国中产阶级“被一名不懂得如何重振经济的总统的政策压垮”。
        　　But it was Mr. Obama who was the central story line of the night, his performance coming acrossas a striking contrast to that of his first face-off with Mr. Romney. For days leading up to Tuesdaynight’s encounter, Mr. Obama huddled in a Virginia resort with advisers to practice a moreaggressive approach without appearing somehow inauthentic or crossing over a line of presidentialdignity. It was a line he would stride up to repeatedly over the course of more than 90 minutes, and some will argue that he slipped over it at times.
        　　然而，奥巴马才是当晚的故事主线，他的表现与首场辩论形成鲜明对比。在周二晚交锋的前几天，奥巴马与顾问们在弗吉尼亚的一个度假胜地演练一种新的辩论策略，既要更加咄咄逼人，又不至于显得不真实或者逾越总统尊严底线。在长达90多分钟的辩论过程中，奥巴马多次逼近这条底线，有人会说，他有几次越过了底线。
        　　Along the way, he ducked some questions. He never directly answered a voter who asked whetherit was the government’s responsibility to try to lower gasoline prices, instead giving his stumpspeech on energy. Nor did he respond directly to another voter who asked who denied extrasecurity to diplomats in Libya, although he did say, “I am ultimately responsible for what’s takenplace there.”
        　　辩论期间，他回避了一些问题。当选民问到，政府是否有降低油价的责任时，他没有给出直接答案，只是发表了一些关于能源问题的政治说辞。还有选民问，是谁拒绝为驻利比亚的外交人员加强安保，他也没有正面回答，尽管他的确表示，“我为那里发生的事情承担最终责任。”
        　　When it was not his turn, Mr. Obama sat on a stool and looked at Mr. Romney as he talked, ratherthan staring down and taking notes as he did in Denver. There was little smirking, though he didproject at times an air of tolerant dismissal.
        　　没轮到自己讲话时，奥巴马就坐在凳子上看罗姆尼发言，而不像在丹佛时那样埋头做笔记。他基本上没有露出冷笑的神情，但偶尔露出一种大度的不屑姿态。
        　　Evidently intent on redeeming himself by getting in all the points he failed to get in last time, Mr. Obama pushed right past time limits and at one point even refused to yield when the moderator, Candy Crowley of CNN, tried to rein him in.
        　　显而易见，奥巴马想把上次的失分全数挽回，他曾多次超过发言时限，有一次，在被来自CNN的主持人坎迪·克劳利(Candy Crowley)打断时，他仍坚持继续发言。
        　　“I want to make sure our timekeepers are working,” he complained when she tried to stop him onanother occasion — never mind that at that point CNN’s time clock showed that he had spoken 19 minutes and 50 seconds, compared with 17 minutes and 17 seconds for Mr. Romney.
        　　“我想确定我们的计时员正在工作，”某次他在克劳利试图打断他时抱怨道，而当时CNN计时器显示，他的发言时长共计19分50秒，而罗姆尼的仅为17分17秒。
        　　By the end, he had dominated the clock, consuming 44 minutes and four seconds to 40 minutesand 50 seconds for Mr. Romney.
        　　最后，他在发言时长上占据了绝对优势，共计44分零4秒，而罗姆尼则为40分50秒。
        　　If that sort of score keeping gave it the feel of an athletic competition, Mr. Obama might notobject. Aides and friends have long said he is a clutch player on the basketball court, the kind whoturns in listless performances during practice but raises his level when the game is on the line.
        　　如果说这种记分方式让你感觉像是一场体育比赛，奥巴马可能不会反对。助手和朋友们一直说，他像是篮球场上的“关键选手”，在训练时显得无精打采，但在比赛的关键时刻却能超常发挥。
        　　The game was on the line Tuesday night, and he scored some points. But the final buzzer is still 20 days away.
        　　周二晚上的对垒极为关键，他也的确有所斩获。但是，最后的决战仍在20天以后。