美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-10-29

 Hey, I’m Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the podcast. Keeping Them Honest now on a pair of campaign ads that, they bend the truth, and not for the first time either. Also ridiculous. Let’s get started. 

Keeping Them Honest now on a pair of Romney campaign ads that , well they bend the truth, frankly¹. Both come from the Romney campaign and both repeat distortions and really outright² falsehoods that have been debunked³ again and again, time and time again. Here’s one titled, “Apology Tour”. 

“The president began with an apology tour of going to various nations and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness. The reason I call it an apology tour, you went to the Middle East and you flew to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq, and you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region. “

 

All right. That’s Mitt⁴ Romney repeating a charge that he’s been making since the campaign began. The actual words came from the final debate this week in Florida and just like all the other times, fact-checkers have called the charge flat-out false. PolitiFact calls it Pants on Fire false, four Pinocchios from The Washington Post fact-checker, and this on debate night from our own fact-checker, John Berman. 

So what are the facts here? When the president took office he did travel to several countries talking about American foreign policy. In France, for example, he said America has shown arrogance⁵ and had been dismissive, even derisive⁶, though he also criticized Europe that very same speech. And in none of these speeches, none of them, in Europe or the Middle East or here at home, did President Obama use the word apology or say he’s sorry. So our verdict here is it is false to call the president’s speeches an apology tour, even if he was critical of past U.S. foreign policy. He issued no apologies. 

And yet the ad has just come out. Here’s a portion of ad number two titled “Highest”.

“The world needs a strong American and it is stronger now than when I came into office. “

“Our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. That’s unacceptable to me. This in my view is the highest responsibility of the president of the United States. And I will not cut our military budget by $1 trillion, which is the combination of the budget cuts that the president asked. That in my view is making our future less certain and less secure. I’m Mitt Romney, and I approve this message. ”

All right. So there are two charges in that ad, one that the Navy is the smallest at any time since 1917, and two, that President Obama is cutting $1 trillion out of the defense⁷ budget. Second item first, Keeping Them Honest, those trillion dollars in cuts were what Democrats⁸ and Republicans agreed would happen automatically over 10 years, if, I say if, neither side could reach a budget deal by year’s end. The Navy claim, that the last time it was so small was 1917, Keeping Them Honest, every major fact-checking organization, ourselves included, has found that simply is not true. Whether you’re making the comparison to 1917 as Mr. Romney now does in that ad, or 1916, which is by the way what he did previously⁹, there were 342 ships in the fleet in 1917. Right now there are 285, which is in fact lower than 342, obviously. However, it’s been below 342 a lot of times before this, including seven years in the 1930s, every year since 2000, in fact. And Keeping Them Honest, we wanted to know why the Romney campaign despite being called out on this time and time again decided¹⁰ to repeat the falsehood in this new ad. It’s just not true. We invited them on the program to give their side. Of course, they declined.

1 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

2 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

3 debunked   

v.揭穿真相，暴露( debunk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His theories have been debunked by recent research. 最近的研究揭穿了他的理论的真相。
• Some advertising slogans should be debunked. 某些夸大的广告用语应予揭露。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

5 arrogance   

n.傲慢，自大

参考例句：

• His arrogance comes out in every speech he makes.他每次讲话都表现得骄傲自大。
• Arrogance arrested his progress.骄傲阻碍了他的进步。

6 derisive   

adj.嘲弄的

参考例句：

• A storm of derisive applause broke out.一阵暴风雨般的哄笑声轰然响起。
• They flushed,however,when she burst into a shout of derisive laughter.然而，当地大声嘲笑起来的时候，她们的脸不禁涨红了。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。