美国国家公共电台 NPR Yes, It's Almost Decision Time For 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Some of the big 2018 elections are still too close to call. But dozens of Democrats¹ are already making plans for the presidential election that is two years away. We're hearing that their decisions are coming soon.

In conversations with NPR, advisers² to several of the likely top candidates say they'll have to figure out if they are in or if they are out between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And if you haven't realized it yet, Thanksgiving is next week. NPR's Scott Detrow has been reporting on this and joins us now in the studio. Hey, Scott.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE³: Hey, Rachel.

MARTIN: All right. So we've heard a lot about a lot of big names for a while now - Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden. The list is so long. What's the deal - they running, they not running?

DETROW: Well, all of these people have been taking a lot of steps to run for president. You've seen a lot of that publicly. They were all all over the country campaigning for Democrats, not only doing that but also working on connections in these key early primary states that they would need.

MARTIN: Right.

DETROW: A lot of their advisers are out doing job interviews, tentative job interviews with candidates, scouting⁴ out headquarters, taking all these steps. But in the end, this comes down to a key personal decision. And none of these top-tier candidates, according to all the interviews that we've been doing - none of them have made that final decision yet. They're all basically in the same place as former Vice⁵ President Joe Biden.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOE BIDEN: So I don't know. I don't know. And I still don't know. I have to make my decision what I'm going to do after the first of the year. It will be a family decision. And we have time.

DETROW: So Biden's saying New Year's is his timeline. But a lot of candidates - it's sooner, as early as Thanksgiving. Basically, a lot of big decisions will be made over the next couple weeks.

MARTIN: And we should mention there are already a couple of Democrats who have officially thrown their hat into the ring, right?

DETROW: Yes. Maryland Congressman⁶ John Delaney has been running in Iowa for a year already. And Richard Ojeda, a West Virginia state senator, lost a high-profile race for Congress last week. That didn't stop him from already launching a presidential campaign.

MARTIN: There's been some reporting out there that Hillary Clinton is mulling over a possible run. Have you heard anything about that?

DETROW: Saying this, talking to nine different campaigns, talking to other Democrats, her name did not come up once.

MARTIN: So Democrats obviously won big in the midterms. How are those results informing how possible 2020 presidential candidates are thinking about that run?

DETROW: I think one sign of the confidence that Democrats have at their ability to beat President Trump⁷ is the fact that you're going to see so many people running - like, maybe close to 20 candidates.

MARTIN: Wow.

DETROW: The second and third and fourth takeaways that all these Democrats had from Tuesday's results were very different. But it was notable that every single one of them had the first main conclusion. And that was looking right to Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and also Ohio. These are the states that made Donald Trump president. A lot of Democrats echoed what Bernie Sanders told NPR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BERNIE SANDERS: Three out of four of those states elected Democratic governors, and all four of those states elected Democratic United States senators. So I think Trump's victories in those states, the very important states, may not be longstanding.

DETROW: Democrats saying this is someone who lost the popular vote, won by about a 80,000-vote margin⁸ in key states - they feel like four years into a Trump presidency⁹, they'll have a pretty easy path.

MARTIN: So, obviously, Democrats thought they were well positioned to win in 2016, right? They thought they were well-positioned to win in a big way.

DETROW: Yes. Yes.

MARTIN: And we know how that went down. So even if they believe Donald Trump is vulnerable, do they know how to beat him? Do they think they know?

DETROW: And it's worth pointing out Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, both lost in huge margins¹⁰ in their first midterms and then won pretty easy second terms. So this is not indicative of anything. I mean, there's always a path. I think the key decision that these Democrats have to make is what the strategy is. And that's where there's mixed results from Tuesday.

Some of these camps are saying it's all about being as progressive as possible. We almost won Georgia. We almost won Texas by leaning into progressive approaches. And more moderate Democrats, Democrats not based in Washington right now, are saying it's all about being moderate and presenting an open style that's really welcoming to independents and Republican voters.

MARTIN: NPR's Scott Detrow for us, thanks so much.

DETROW: Thank you.

1 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》

2 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

7 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

8 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

9 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

10 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。