With one week to go before crucial primaries in the large, delegate rich states of Texas and Ohio, the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, met in a televised debate Tuesday. The debate was held in Cleveland, Ohio and broadcast by the MSNBC cable channel.
离德克萨斯州和俄亥俄州总统选举的关键民主党初选只有一星期了，这是两个民主党选举代表人数众多的大州。两名民主党总统侯选人希拉里.克林顿和巴拉克.奥巴马星期二在电视辩论中交手。这场辩论在俄亥俄州的克里夫兰举行，通过微软及国家广播公司的有线电视频道播出。
The two candidates clashed early on in the debate over the issues of health care and free trade, but their answers revealed only minor differences between them on those issues. What drove the conflict was the question of which side had acted unfairly towards the other.
两位侯选人就医疗保健和自由贸易问题进行辩论，但是他们的答复却显示对这些问题的见解只是稍有差异。导致冲突的问题是究竟哪一方对待对方的行为不公正。
Clinton accused Obama of misrepresenting her position on those issues in printed pamphlet that his campaign mailed to voters in Ohio.
克林顿指称奥巴马在竞选中散发给俄亥俄州选民的宣传小册子的内容误传克林顿在那些问题上的立场。
"What I find regrettable is that in Senator Obama's mailing that he has sent out across Ohio it is almost as if the health insurance companies and the Republicans wrote it," she said.
克林顿说：“让我感到遗憾的是，奥巴马参议员邮寄到俄亥俄各地的宣传小册子的内容几乎像是出自医疗保险公司和共和党人之手。”
Clinton said her plan covers all Americans, whereas the plan put forward by Obama would leave millions of people without coverage.
克林顿说，她的医疗保险计划包括所有美国人，而奥巴马的计划却会让几百万人得不到医疗保险。
Obama responded that the only difference between their two plans was that his would not force people to buy the insurance, but would make it available to everyone. He also brushed aside Clinton's complaints about his mailings.
奥巴马回答说，他们两人医疗保险计划的唯一不同是，他自己的计划不会强迫人们购买医疗保险，但是每个人都可以选择得到保险。他还反驳了克林顿对他所邮寄的宣传小册子的指责：
"Senator Clinton, in her campaign, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, emails, mobile calls, flyers, television ads, radio calls, and we have not whined about it because I understand that is the nature of these campaigns," he said.
“克林顿参议员在竞选中经常通过电子邮件、移动电话、宣传品、电视广告和广播节目对我们发动负面攻击，而我们从来不发怨言，因为我理解竞选本来就是如此。”
Clinton in recent days has questioned the readiness of her opponent to be commander in chief, saying that he does not have the experience in office that she has. In the debate she reiterated some of her points, saying that, in a previous debate, he had said he would bomb Pakistan and that he would meet with dictators around the world without any preconditions.
克林顿最近质疑她的对手是否作好了担当统帅的准备。她说，奥巴马的执政经验不如自己丰富。她在辩论中重申了自己为什么说奥巴马的执政经验不足。她说，在以前的辩论中，奥巴马曾说要轰炸巴基斯坦，而且还会无条件地与世界上的独裁者会晤。
Obama denied that he had said he would bomb Pakistan and said he, as president, would take action against terrorists hiding in that nation's remote areas if he had intelligence indicating where they were and Pakistan could not or would not act.
奥巴马否认自己曾经说过要轰炸巴基斯坦。他还说，一旦有情报显示在巴基斯坦边远地区的恐怖分子的具体藏身地点，而巴基斯坦当局又无能为力或不愿行动，他作为总统将对这些恐怖分子采取行动。
He also questioned Senator Clinton's judgment in voting to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq.
"On the most important foreign policy decision that we faced in a generation, whether or not to go into Iraq, I was very clear as to why we should not, that it would fan the flames of anti-American sentiment, that it would distract us from Afghanistan, that it would cost us billions of dollars, thousands of lives and not make us more safe and I do not believe it has made us more safe," he said.
Later in the debate, Clinton made her clearest statement to date on that issue, admitting that her vote had been a mistake.
"Although my vote on the 2002 authorization regarding Iraq was a sincere vote, I would not have voted that way again. I would certainly, as president, never have taken us to war in Iraq," she said.
There were no dramatic moments in this debate where one or the other of the two candidates scored a major advance over the other, but it did give them both a chance to expand on their positions on some important issues ahead of the March 4 contests, in which voters in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island will go to the polls.
在这场辩论中，他们两人都没有出现以明显优势压倒对方的戏剧性时刻，但是这次辩论的确在3月4号的初选投票前，给予双方就某些重要议题进一步阐述各自立场的机会。德克萨斯州、俄亥俄州、佛蒙特州和罗德岛州的选民在这一天将参加初选。
Early voting has already started here in Texas and many districts are reporting huge increases in voter turnout over past elections. Clinton has campaigned hard here among Hispanics, women and laborers, but Obama seems to have excited enthusiastic support from blacks and young voters. He has now drawn even with her in the polls here and in Ohio, both states where she had been in the lead only a few weeks ago. Senator Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, campaigning here in Texas last week, said that she needs to win both states to remain in the race.
德克萨斯州已经开始进行提前投票。许多地区都有消息说选民参选率大大高于以往。克林顿在德克萨斯州的拉美裔、妇女和劳工群体中大力开展竞选活动，但是奥巴马看来赢得了非洲裔选民及年轻选民极其热情的支持。奥巴马如今在德克萨斯和俄亥俄的民调支持率与克林顿不相上下。仅仅几星期前，克林顿在这两个州的民意调查中还占领先地位。克林顿参议员的丈夫前总统克林顿上星期在德克萨斯展开助选活动。他说希拉里必须赢得这两个州，才能继续参选。 |