Mammoth Storm Impacts US Political Campaigning

 Mammoth Storm Impacts US Political Campaigning

WASHINGTON — Huge swaths of the U.S. East Coast are being pelted¹ by one of the biggest storms ever to approach the mainland, just more than a week before Americans vote for president and pick a new Congress. Hurricane Sandy has forced the cancellation² of campaign events and could leave millions of Americans without power as they prepare to cast ballots³.

?Hurricane Sandy is unleashing⁴ powerful winds and torrential rains from the Carolinas to New York. In coming days, the storm’s impact will likely be felt from the U.S. mid-Atlantic region into Canada. While U.S. airwaves are filled with political advertisements before the election, many voters have a more immediate⁵ concern.

“I am really nervous about this [storm]," a woman said. "I really am. I am cooking. I am thinking we are not going to eat for the next six days.”

Sandy is expected to join with two winter storm systems to form what forecasters have termed a hybrid⁶ "superstorm" spanning 1,200 kilometers, affecting up to 60-million residents.

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President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Governor Mitt⁷ Romney, have cancelled campaign events in the critical battleground state of Virginia, where early voting is already underway.  Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner spoke⁸ on the U.S. television program Fox News Sunday.

“We do not have as extensive an early voting in Virginia as other states.  The storm will throw a little bit of havoc⁹ into the race.  I was supposed to be with the president [Obama] and [former] President Clinton on Monday.  That rally has been cancelled.  But I think Virginians are ready to go to the polls.”

?Obama campaign officials say the president’s immediate focus is on the well-being¹⁰ of Americans in Sandy’s path. Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter appeared on ABC’s This Week program.

“Of course, we are all hoping that the hurricane does not have huge consequences for people’s safety," said Cutter. "We have taken every precaution that we possibly can.  The president took down a couple of [campaign] stops so he could monitor the situation.  So we just have to see how this goes.”

Recent weeks have seen Mitt Romney erase¹¹ the president’s lead in the polls, both nationally and in many pivotal swing-states. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said the momentum¹² is on Romney’s side.

“Polls are closing [narrowing], and the energy and enthusiasm is on our side this year,” he said.

That message was echoed by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who appeared on This Week.

“In Ohio, we [Republicans] clearly have gained ground," he said. "I doubt very much that Obama is going to carry Virginia.”

A loss in both states would, indeed, be a severe blow to President Obama’s re-election hopes. But Democrats¹³ say they are not panicking, arguing that Democrats are already voting early in record numbers.

“In many cases, we are beating Mitt Romney three-to-one in the early vote.  Our people are turning out, and they are turning out in very high numbers," said Stephanie Cutter. "We feel good about Ohio, we feel we are going to win it.”

What no one can predict is Sandy's impact on the desire and ability of tens of millions of Americans to vote, and just how, if at all, that will affect the outcome on November 6.

1 pelted   

（连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮

参考例句：

• The children pelted him with snowballs. 孩子们向他投掷雪球。
• The rain pelted down. 天下着大雨。

2 cancellation   

n.删除，取消

参考例句：

• Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大，可能须要取消渡轮服务。
• Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。

3 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 unleashing   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Company logos: making people's life better by unleashing Cummins power. 公司理念：以康明斯动力建设更美好的生活！ 来自互联网
• Sooner or later the dam will burst, unleashing catastrophic destruction. 否则堤坝将崩溃，酿成灾难。 来自互联网

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

7 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。

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 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

10 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

11 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

12 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

13 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》