经济学人335:共和党参选

 　　THE race for the Republican presidential nomination¹ has followed a consistent pattern. Every month or so a candidate emerges from the pack to threaten Mitt² Romney’s lead, only to drop back after a week or two. It used to be a new challenger each time: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and so on. Lately, it has been the same man periodically snapping at Mr Romney’s heels before falling behind again: Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania. This week Mr Santorum flubbed yet another chance to overtake Mr Romney, by losing the primary in Illinois. That is great news for Mr Romney.

　　共和党人参选总统提名的方式总是千篇一律。每个月都会从党内冒出一个会对罗姆尼的领先地位造成威胁的候选人，但只是为了一两个星期后被罗姆尼甩在身后。以前这样的候选人每每都会成为一个新的挑战：米歇尔贝克曼，赫尔曼凯因，里克派瑞等等。后来的候选人渐渐沦为定期出现的人偶，只是为了在又一次落后之前徒劳地咬住罗姆尼前进的车轮，比如宾夕法尼亚州的前议员里克桑托勒姆。本周桑托勒姆伊利诺斯州初选失利，失去了超越罗姆尼的机会。不过这对罗姆尼来说却是个好消息。

　　After Georgia, Illinois is the biggest prize yet, accounting³ for 69 of 2,286 delegates to the Republican convention in August, at which the nominee⁴ will formally be selected. Mr Romney won by a big margin⁵: 47% to 35%. Because of the complicated electoral rules in Illinois and many other states, that will bring him at least two-thirds of the delegates from the state. It also marks the first time that he has drubbed Mr Santorum in the Midwest, after narrow wins in Michigan and Ohio and defeats in Iowa and Minnesota.

　　伊利诺斯州是继乔治亚州之后最重要的选区，在2286名参加八月举办的共和党大会的代表中，有69名都来自伊利诺斯州，届时大会将正式选出提名者。罗姆尼以47%比35%的绝对优势大获全胜。 多亏了伊利诺斯和其他州复杂的选举规则，罗姆尼将获得至少三分之二的伊利诺斯州代表的支持。这也标志着在经历了密歇根，俄亥俄的险胜以及爱荷华，明尼苏达的失败之后，罗姆尼首次在中西部地区打败了桑托勒姆。

　　Mr Santorum did his best to expand his appeal beyond the most conservative voters, talking in histrionic terms about the need for smaller government. “This is the most important election of your lifetime,” he intoned at a rally in Peoria, the supposed navel of middle America. “Freedom [is] at stake,” he tweeted on the morning of the primary. But he had already fluffed his lines, appearing to suggest that the unemployment rate was not that important (compared with preserving America’s founding principles, he meant).

　　就冲他曾经煽情地说过缩减政府规模的必要性这一点，桑托勒姆在向保守选民施展魅力方面也算尽心尽力了。“这是你们有生之年最重要的选举”，桑托勒姆曾在美国中部的中心城市皮奥利亚的某个集会上如是说道。他曾在初选的早晨情绪激昂的说“自由就要被剥夺”。但是他说错了话，因为他曾暗示失业率并不那么重要（其实他的意思相较于死守美国的基本准则来说，失业率不太重要）

　　Disappointingly for Mr Santorum, Peorians seemed to have faith in Mr Romney’s ability to repair the economy. People for whom that was the most important issue voted for him overwhelmingly, according to exit polls. They also had misgivings⁶ about Mr Santorum’s emphasis on social issues. At an event he held also in Peoria, a veteran said of his fixation with abortion⁷: “It’s the last thing we should care about. If we keep spending, we are going to end up like Greece.” Yet like a moth⁸ to the flame Mr Santorum keeps returning to such topics, and all the controversy⁹ that comes with them. During a speech he gave at a religious school in the Chicago suburbs, two men in the audience stood up and kissed, prompting predictable hostility¹⁰ from the crowd.

　　皮奥利亚的人民抱着对桑托勒姆的失望之情转而寄希望于罗姆尼能够挽救萎靡的经济。据投票后民调显示，那些把失业率视为重中之重的人都坚定地把票投给了罗姆尼。他们同样误解了桑托勒姆强调的社会问题。在另一场皮奥利亚的集会上，一个退伍老兵表示自己支持终止计划：“这是最后一件值得我们关注的事，如果我们继续挥霍，下场会和希腊一样惨。”于是桑托勒姆如飞蛾扑火一般又回到了这类话题，以及这类话题所来了种种争议上。 他曾在芝加哥郊区的一所教会学校讲话，其间两个男人从观众席里站起来拥吻，毫不意外地招来了观众的反感。

　　Mr Romney has won over half of the delegates awarded so far. That pace, if sustained, will be more than enough to secure him the nomination outright¹¹, although probably not before the final primaries in May and June. His rivals, by contrast, would need to improve their showing dramatically, winning the lion’s share of the remaining delegates simply to deny Mr Romney outright victory. And they would have to do that in unfavourable states like Maryland, New York and California.

　　目前罗姆尼赢得了一半多的代表支持。如果这一良好态势得到保持，罗姆尼完全可以不费吹灰之力地赢得提名资格，至少在五六月的最后初选之前都没问题。相反，他的对手们要想获得余下的大部分代表支持来抹杀罗姆尼的的绝对优势的话，就必须好好练练怎么做秀。他们得在马里兰，纽约和加利福尼亚这类十分难缠的选区花功夫。

　　The prospects¹² for the two other candidates, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, look hopeless; but neither of them shows any sign of being ready to concede. Both Mr Paul and Mr Santorum argue that they have actually won more delegates than estimated in the caucus¹³ states. This could be true (those delegates have not actually been assigned yet), but the difference would be far too small to alter the dynamics¹⁴ of the race. Mr Gingrich, for his part, seems to enjoy campaigning and to bear a grudge¹⁵ about how Mr Romney and an allied¹⁶ Super PAC ended his time in the sun with cloudbursts of negative advertising¹⁷.

　　纽特金里奇和罗恩保罗这两位候选人的前景也十分黯淡。但是两个人都没有退缩的意思。保罗和桑托勒姆都认为自己实际赢得的代表人数要比决策会议上公布的多。这也不是没可能（因为那些代表还没有被指派。）但差距太小，不足以改变参选动态。金里奇似乎很喜欢参选，也很喜欢抱怨罗姆尼和同盟Super PAC是如何利用负面宣传这个晴天霹雳终结了自己阳光灿烂的的参选生涯的。

　　Moreover, even if Mr Romney’s nomination is in the bag barring some unexpected reversal, his position is hardly commanding. His biggest wins have tended to be in places that either vote reliably Democratic in presidential elections, such as Illinois and Massachusetts, or don’t vote at all, such as Guam and Puerto Rico (which gave him almost 90% of the vote on March 18th). He still struggles to win the support of poorer, less educated, more conservative and more religious voters. On March 24th he is likely to lose the next state to vote, Louisiana. His long, hard march to the nomination continues

　　即使不考虑罗姆尼在提名之路遇到的未知阻碍，他也很难保持遥遥领先的位置。他大获全胜的几个州要么是伊利诺斯州和马萨诸塞州这样忠诚地把票投给民主党的地区，要么就是关岛和波多黎各这样干脆不投票的地区（在3月18号，这些地区把90%的票都投给了罗姆尼）。他仍然在努力争取那些较贫困，受教育程度较低，更保守和受宗教影响更大的选民。他似乎在3月24四日又输掉了一个州的支持——路易斯安那。对于罗姆尼来说，提名之路漫漫而修远，仍需上下求索。

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 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。

3 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

4 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

5 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。

6 misgivings   

n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧

参考例句：

• I had grave misgivings about making the trip. 对于这次旅行我有过极大的顾虑。
• Don't be overtaken by misgivings and fear. Just go full stream ahead! 不要瞻前顾后， 畏首畏尾。甩开膀子干吧！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

8 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

9 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

10 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

11 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。

12 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

13 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

14 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

15 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。

16 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

17 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。