Obama, Romney Looking to Build Off Debate Encounter

 THE WHITE HOUSE — President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt¹ Romney, were back on the campaign trail Wednesday, after Tuesday night's contentious² debate.  Both candidates tried to build on the points they made during the debate.

President Obama, Governor Romney, and their running mates fanned out across political swing states on Wednesday, with each man trying to convince voters that his side had won the debate.

Obama paid yet another visit to the crucial states of Iowa and Ohio.  In Mount Vernon, Iowa, the Democratic candidate repeated his contention³ that Romney’s economic agenda differs from the successful plans of previous presidents.

“His tax plan does not add up.  His jobs plan does not create jobs.  His deficit⁴ reduction plan adds to the deficit.  So, Iowa, everybody here has heard of the New Deal.  You have heard of the Fair Deal.  You have heard of the Square Deal.  Mitt Romney is trying to sell you a sketchy⁵ deal," he said.

Many public opinion surveys taken after the debate indicated that a slight majority of voters believed Obama won the debate, and that he performed better than Romney on women’s issues.

But the surveys also show Romney with a substantial lead over the president on economic issues.

Governor Romney told a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia that the U.S. economy is the main issue on women’s minds, and that he is better suited to address it.

“And as I go across the country and ask women, ‘What can I do to help?’, what they speak about, day in and day out, is, ‘Help me find a good job or a good job for my spouse⁶, and help my kid.  Make sure my children have a bright future.’  Better schools and better job opportunities.  That is what the women of America are concerned about, and the answers are coming from us and not from Barack Obama," he said.

Republican vice⁷ presidential candidate Paul Ryan had a similar message for supporters at a rally near Cleveland, Ohio. “We saw a president not offer a single idea or a lesson learned from the failures of the last four years.  But what we saw in Governor Mitt Romney was a leader who has the solutions, who has the ideas on how to turn this economy around, how to get people back to work," he said.

Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Greeley, Colorado, painted a different picture of Obama. “You all saw the man that I have sat with every day, on average four to six hours a day.  A man of principle, a man of gumption⁸, a man with a steady hand and a clear vision.  That is what America got to see last night," he said.

President Obama’s lead in public opinion surveys has eroded⁹ and possibly disappeared after what is widely regarded as a poor performance in the first of the three debates, on October 3.

Journalism¹⁰ professor Alan Schroeder at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts says the president’s better performance in Tuesday’s debate might help him stop the slide. 

“It was a badly needed win for Obama because, of course, he had messed up so badly in the first debate.  And at that point, the positive narrative¹¹ shifted away from him and onto Mitt Romney.  And so Obama really needed a change of trajectory¹², just as far as his news coverage¹³ went.  I think this debate will give him that," he said.

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 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

3 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 sketchy   

adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的

参考例句：

• The material he supplied is too sketchy.他提供的材料过于简略。
• Details of what actually happened are still sketchy.对于已发生事实的详细情况知道的仍然有限。

6 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 gumption   

n.才干

参考例句：

• With his gumption he will make a success of himself.凭他的才干，他将大有作为。
• Surely anyone with marketing gumption should be able to sell good books at any time of year.无疑，有经营头脑的人在一年的任何时节都应该能够卖掉好书。

9 eroded   

adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The cliff face has been steadily eroded by the sea. 峭壁表面逐渐被海水侵蚀。
• The stream eroded a channel in the solid rock. 小溪在硬石中侵蚀成一条水道。

10 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

11 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

12 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。