VOA常速英语2007年-Despite Tight Races in Iowa, Clinton, Giuliani

By Ravi Khanna
Washington
07 December 2007
 

Voters in Iowa will be the first to pick among U.S. presidential candidates running for the two major political party nominations¹. A new poll shows, however, two of the contenders dominate the field in three crucial states that will vote later. In simultaneous surveys in the three so-called "swing" states, the Quinnipiac University Poll shows Senator Hillary Clinton leads all Democrats², and former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani is at the top of the Republican field. VOA's Ravi Khanna has more.

Senator Barak Obama is a front runner among Democrats in the most recent public opinion poll in Iowa, though Senator Hillary Clinton has led in others in what has become a tight three-way race.

But the Quinnipiac University poll shows Clinton holding overwhelming leads, especially among women, in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has surged ahead of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt³ Romney in Iowa.

But the Quinnipiac polls shows former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani leading in the three swing states. However, he holds only about 30 percent support in each.

The assistant director of the polling institute, Peter Brown says the three have been crucial swing states in presidential elections since 1964, with the winners taking at least two out of the three of them.

He also says respondents in the three states named illegal immigration as the main issue. "Voters by and large don't dislike illegal immigrants. They don't think they are bad people. But they are unhappy with the status quo, and they think immigration reform means stricter controls, they don't think it means opening up the country for further integration⁴ of illegal immigrants into American life," said Brown.

Another assistant director of the poll, Clay Richards, says voters in the swing states view the immigration problem differently than a place like New York, where he says a million illegal immigrants are visible every day. "Pennsylvania right next door, another big state has 150,000 immigrants. That is a totally different picture. Yes they are there. But you don't see them every day like you do in New York City. They are not part of your lives."

And the poll shows that 20 to 25 percent of voters in each state would vote against a presidential candidate who disagrees with them on immigration policy.

Brown says illegal immigrants have become important in this American election because Congress and President Bush failed to resolve the issue last spring. "The reason they failed to resolve is that there is deep division in the United States about the policy toward illegal immigration. Should the policy be to try to integrate illegal immigrants into the American society? Or, should it be strict enforcement of laws to perhaps cut down on the number of illegal immigrants?"

He says most respondents defined immigration reform as stricter enforcement, and not assimilation of illegal immigrants into American society.

1 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

2 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》

3 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。

4 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。