2007年VOA标准英语-Iraq Differences Continue to Define US Presiden(在线收听) |
By Jim Malone
The differing views on Iraq between the president and congressional Democrats are also being reflected daily on the presidential campaign trail. The Democratic presidential contenders support various troop withdrawal proposals that would force a redeployment of U.S. forces out of Iraq next year. Among them was Delaware Senator Joe Biden. "Ladies and gentlemen, this war must end," said Senator Biden. "This war must end and it must end soon!" At times, Democrats compete with each other to see which candidate has opposed the war the longest. Obama is running second in the polls to New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton supports a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq but so far has refused to say her vote authorizing the war in 2002 was a mistake, unlike some of her Democratic rivals. Stuart Rothenberg publishes a non-partisan political newsletter in Washington. "There is an effort on the Democratic side to show that each of these candidates was the most critical of the president, or in some cases that they were the earliest critics of the president, or that they have been the most vociferous critics of the president," he said. There is much more support for President Bush's war strategy among the Republican presidential contenders. The most aggressive supporter of the new troop surge strategy is Arizona Senator John McCain, a fierce critic of Democratic efforts to set a deadline for troop withdrawal. McCain trails former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the latest opinion polls. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is third among active candidates, though former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson also scores well among Republican voters. Thompson says he is considering joining the race later this year. Another potential contender is Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. Hagel has emerged as perhaps the top Republican critic of the Bush strategy on Iraq. Hagel is one of only two Republican Senators to support a Democratic plan to set a troop withdrawal deadline as part of an emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush says he will veto the bill if it contains the withdrawal deadlines, which have been approved by narrow margins in both the House and Senate. Political experts question how much success Senator Hagel would have as a war critic in a Republican presidential field dominated by supporters of the current military strategy in Iraq. John Fortier is a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The three big [Republican] candidates are very supportive of Bush and the surge and the war," he explained. "He [Hagel] would look a little bit different, but even if the war is unpopular generally, which it is, it is still relatively popular in Republican circles and I am not sure that he is going to get that much traction in this field." Iraq is by no means the only issue in the early stage of the campaign. Candidates from both parties spend a lot of time talking about their views on health care, immigration, the threat of terrorism and U.S. foreign policy in general. |
原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/voastandard/2007/3/37870.html |