Obama, Romney to Face Off in Pivotal 2nd Debate

 Obama, Romney to Face Off in Pivotal 2nd Debate

WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Barack Obama faces a crucial second debate Tuesday with Republican challenger Mitt¹ Romney at Hofstra University in New York state.  Both candidates have made intense preparations for this encounter.

With polls showing either President Obama or Mitt Romney with a narrow lead nationally, and close contests in key battleground states, both campaigns have expressed confidence ahead of the debate.

Romney has been in the Boston area practicing. President Obama spent a third and final day in Williamsburg, Virginia, immersed in preparations with advisers² and campaign staff.

Officials describe him as "calm and energized," saying he is ready to make a passionate³ case that his policies will be better for middle class Americans than Romney's.

Both campaigns unleashed⁴ new ads.  An Obama ad featured supporters voicing confidence in his economic policies.  Romney ads used excerpts⁵ from the first presidential debate.

OBAMA AD:  "President Obama does get what people need and that is jobs and the opportunity to help themselves."   VOTER:  "Stick with this guy, he will move us forward."

ROMNEY AD:  "Look at the evidence of the last four years.  Under the president's policies, middle income Americans have been buried.  They have just been crushed."

Obama campaign officials declined to detail how the president's preparation has differed from the first debate, when Obama said he had a "bad night."

Brookings Institution analyst⁶ Stephen Hess says the president has a chance to recover from his poor performance in the first debate.

"The first [debate] is terribly important, that has been the history of these debates.  But there have been other situations, certainly an example of a comeback would have been Ronald Reagan in his second campaign when he was running against [Walter] Mondale and in which he did very poorly in his first debate and came back very strong in his second debate and of course overwhelmingly won that election," said Hess.

The campaigns are also focusing on key states like Ohio.  No Republican has ever won the presidency⁷ without winning Ohio.  Polls show President Obama holding on to a lead there.

His wife Michelle spoke⁸ in central Ohio on Monday about what she called her husband's conviction.  In neighboring Pennsylvania, Ann Romney said the last debate gave Americans an "unfiltered" picture of her husband.

ANN ROMNEY:  "They heard with their ears and they saw with their eyes and what did they see, they saw a man ready and prepared to lead this country."

MICHELLE OBAMA:  "What truly made me fall in love with my husband was his character and I mean that, it was his decency⁹ and his honesty, the same thing we see in him every single day as president, that compassion¹⁰ and conviction."

Tuesday's second debate will be a town hall format¹¹ that analysts¹² say will test the ability of both candidates to respond spontaneously to questions from the audience, with possible followups from the moderator.

Foreign policy will be the focus of a third and final debate next week in Florida.

1 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。

2 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

3 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

4 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。

10 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

11 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

12 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。