VOA常速英语2008年-Clinton, Obama Fight to Put Racial Controversie

By Kent Klein
Washington
15 March 2008

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is denouncing controversial remarks by the pastor¹ of his church, as he and Hillary Clinton continue their fight for the party's nomination². VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington.

As he campaigned in the central state of Indiana on Saturday, Senator Obama again rejected comments by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama has been a member for two decades. "Where we can not forget about our past and not ignore the very real forces of racial inequality and gender³ inequality and the other things that divide us. I don't want us to forget them--we have to acknowledge them and lift them up. And when people say things like my former pastor said, you have to speak out forcefully against them," he said.

Obama's campaign announced Friday that the Reverend Wright was stepping down from its African-American Leadership Committee. Wright had said that past U.S. policies led to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Wright also said voters would embrace Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton because Obama knew what it means to be a black man living in a society "controlled by rich white people." "Hillary ain't never been called a (bleep)! Hillary ain't had to work twice as hard just to get accepted by the rich white folk who run everything," he said.

Obama also strongly rejected Wright's comments in a television interview Friday night on the U.S. television network MSNBC. "These particular statements that have been gathered are ones that I strongly objected to, strongly condemned⁴. Had I heard them in church, I would have expressed that concern directly to Reverend Wright," he said.

Senator Clinton's campaign has not commented on the issue. Her campaign has also been dealing⁵ with a controversial racial comment by a supporter. Former New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro gave up her honorary position in the Clinton campaign in the past week, after she said Obama is succeeding in the presidential race only because he is African-American.

Political analyst⁶ Larry Sabato believes the controversies⁷ will not have a lasting⁸ effect on the presidential campaign. "I just think this will blow over like so many other flaps. Obviously, the minister said some dumb things. Geraldine Ferraro said some dumb things. Human beings say dumb things, and we get over it. We move on to the next item on the agenda, and we'll do so here," he said.

Senator Clinton is campaigning this weekend in the eastern state of Pennsylvania, the scene of the next major primary, on April 22nd.

Pennsylvania is the nation's fifth-largest state, with 158 delegates. In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama leads Clinton by 124 delegates. He needs 531 more to clinch⁹ the nomination.

1 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

2 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。

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

4 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

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 controversies   

争论

参考例句：

• We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议，我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句

8 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

9 clinch   

v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench

参考例句：

• Clinch the boards together.用钉子把木板钉牢在一起。
• We don't accept us dollars,please Swiss francs to clinch a deal business.我方不收美元，请最好用瑞士法郎来成交生意。