2013年自考英语(二)课文译文:竞选运动

　　竞选运动

　　Although presidential elections occur every 4 years, many people feel that they do not have a true understanding of how presidential campaigns operate.

　　尽管总统选举每四年举行一次，许多人还是感到他们并没有真正理解总统竞选是如何进行的。

　　The winner in the November general election is almost certain to be either the Republican or the Democratic nominee. A minor-party or independent candidate, such as George Wallace in 1968, John Anderson in 1980, or Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, can draw votes away from the major-party nominees but stands almost no chance of defeating them.

　　11月份大选的获胜者几乎肯定是共和党或民主党提名的人。小党派或独立的候选人，如1968年的乔治?华莱士，1980年的约翰?安德森，1992年和1996年的罗丝?佩罗等，可能从大党的提名人那里拉走一些选票，但几乎没有可能战胜他们。

　　A major-party nominee has the critical advantage of support from the party faithful. Earlier in the twentieth century, this support was so firm and steady that the victory of the stronger party's candidate was almost a certainty. Warren G. Harding accepted the 1920 Republican nomination at his Ohio home, stayed there throughout most of the campaign, and won a full victory simply because most of the voters of his time were Republicans. Party loyalty has declined in recent decades, but more than two-thirds of the nation's voters still identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans, and most of them support their party's presidential candidate. Even Democrat George McCiovern, who had the lowest. level of party support among recent nominees, was backed in 1972 by nearly 60 percent of his party's voters.

　　大党提名人具有得到党的忠实信徒支持这一关键的优势。20世纪早些时候，这种支持是非常坚定和稳固，实力较强党派的候选人的胜利几乎是一种不争的事实。1920年，华任?G?哈定在俄亥俄州的家中接受了共和党的提名，而且大部分的竞选过程都呆在那里，但只是因为当时大多数投票人都是共和党人，他获得了完全的胜利。近几十年来，各党派的忠诚度。且他们大多支持本党派的总统候选人。即使是近年在各党提名人中，获得的支持最低的民主党候选人乔治?麦戈文，在1972年仍然得到本党几乎60%的投票人的拥护。

　　Presidential candidates act strategically. In deciding whether to pursue a course of action, they try to estimate its likely impact on the voters. During the 1992 campaign, a sign on the wall of Clinton's headquarters in Little Rock read, "The Economy, Stupid." The slogan was the idea of James Carville, Clinton's chief strategist, and was meant as a reminder to the candidate and the staff to keep the campaign focused on the nation's slow-moving economy, which ultimately was the issue that defeated Bush. As in 1980, when Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan during tough economic times, the voters were motivated largely by a desire for change.

　　总统候选人的行动颇具策略，在决定是否遵循一项行动方针时，他们要尽量估计一下该方针对投票人可能具有的影响。在1992年的大选中，在小石城克林顿竞选总部的一面墙上有这样一块标牌，上面写着：“经济，愚蠢”。这一口号是克林顿的主要谋略家詹姆斯?卡维尔的杰作，它是要提醒候选人和所有工作人员要把竞选焦点集中在本国增长迟缓的经济上，而正是这一点最终击败了布什。正如在1980年，吉米?卡特在经济困难时期败给罗纳德?里根那样，选民们主要是希望一种改变。

　　Candidates try to project a strong leadership image. Whether voters accept this image, however, depends more on external factors than on a candidate's personal characteristics. In 1991, after the Gulf War, Bush's approval rating reached 91 percent, the highest level recorded since polling began in the 1930s. A year later, with the nation's economy in trouble, Bush?approval rating dropped below 40 percent. Bush tried to stir images of his strong leadership of the war, but voters remained concerned about the economy.

　　候选人尽力突出表现一种强有力的领导的形象，然而，选民们是否接受这一形象，更多地取决于外部因素而不是候选人的个人特点。在海湾战争后的1991年，布什的支持率达到了90%，这是自本世纪30年代开始民意测验以来的最高记录。一年后，随着国民经济陷入困境，布什的支持率下降到了40%，布什力图让选民们想起他在战时强有力的领导形象，而他们关心的却是本国的经济状况。

　　The candidates’ strategies are shaped by many considerations, including the constitutional provision that each state shall have electoral votes equal in number to its representation in Congress. Each state thus gets two electoral votes for its Senate representation and a varying number of electoral votes depending on its House representation. Altogether, there are 538 electoral votes (including three for the District of Columbia, even though it has no voting representatives in Congress). To win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 votes, an electoral majority.

　　候选人策略的形成要考虑到许多因素，包括宪法的这一条款：每个州具有的选举人票的数量与其在国会中的代表人数相等。这样每个州可以靠它在参议院的代表人数而有两位选举人，凭众议院的代表人数而获得人数不等的选举人。总起来共有538张选举票(包括来自哥伦比亚特区的3位选举人，尽管它在国会没有投票代表)，要赢得总统职位，候选人必须获得至少270张的多数票。

　　Candidates are particularly concerned with winning the states which have the largest population, such as California (with 54 electoral votes), New York (33), Texas (32), Florida (25), Pennsylvania (23), lllinois (22), and Ohio (21). Victory in the eleven largest states alone would provide an electoral majority, and presidential candidates therefore spend most of their time campaigning in those states. Clinton received only 43 percent of the popular vote in 1992, compared with Bush's 38 percent and Perot's 19 percent; but Clinton won in states that gave him an overwhelming 370 electoral votes, compared with 168 for Bush and none for Perot.

　　候选人特别关注在人口最多的州赢得选票，如加利福尼亚州(拥有54张选票)，纽约州(33张)，得克萨斯州(32张)，佛罗里达州(25张)，宾西法尼亚州(23张)，伊利诺伊州(22张)和俄亥俄州(21张)。仅在11个人口最多的州获胜就可获得多数选票，因此总统候选人花费他们大部分的时间在这些州进行竞选。1992年，克林顿仅仅得到43%的公民投票，布什得到了38%，佩罗得到了19%。但是克林顿在一些州获得了胜利，这些州给了他压倒多数的370张选票，而布什只得了68张，佩罗一无所获。

?2013年7月各省市自考成绩查询入口汇总

?各地10月自考时间

更多信息请访问：自学考试频道    自学考试论坛