CNN 2012-08-21

 I'm Soledad O'Brien, sitting in for Anderson Cooper, welcome to the podcast. Is the Romney Campaign losing control of its campaign message? That's raw politics and the ridiculous. Let's get started.

 

President Obama and Paul Ryan on the campaign trail tonight, the President in Davenport, Iowa, and the congressman¹ in Oxford², Ohio, and the tone getting ugly over the last couple of days on both sides.  

 

But we're focusing tonight on substance, namely the Romney campaign's ongoing³ difficulty explaining its own plan for dealing⁴ with the budget mess. Listen to Senior Romney Adviser⁵ Ed Gillespie on the Situation Room.

 

How many years would it take for the Romney budget to result in a balanced budget?  

 

Wolf, I'm not sure of that myself actually. I will get that to you, though, and, Wolf, I'm sure it's on our website. I should know it. I'm embarrassed on your here that I don't have that number at the top of my head. I didn't know we're going to talk about that today. I apologize for it.  

 

All right. We'll get the number and we'll tell our viewers.  

 

Prepared questions, I didn't know you were going to ask.  

 

So that was just a few hours ago on the Situation Room.

 

What makes it all the more interesting is that last night, in his first solo interview, Mitt⁶ Romney's new running mate was no less stumped⁷.  Listen.  

 

The budget plan that you are now supporting would get to balance when?  

 

Well, they're different, the budget plan that Mitt Romney is supporting gets us down to 20% of GDP government spending by 2016. That means get the size of government back to where it historically has been. What President Obama has done is he has brought the size of government to as high as it hasn't been since World War II. We want to reduce the size of government so we can have more economic freedom.  

 

I get that, but what about balance?  

 

Well, I don't know exactly when it balances.  

 

Well, there are no specifics on the Romney Web site as Mr. Gillespie suggested or in the Romney budget plan about when that balanced budget, budget, rather, will be balanced. Now back in June Mr. Romney said he would try to balance the budget within eight to 10 years. Back in March, though, he admitted that the budget lacked enough specifics to say for sure just when or if it would be balanced. Listen.  

 

Well, I haven't laid out all the details of how we're going to deal with each one of the deductions⁸ and exemptions⁹. So I think it's kind of interesting for the groups to try and score it because frankly¹⁰ it can't be scored because those kinds of details are going to have to be worked out with Congress.  

 

Just a few days ago his top adviser said that no new specifics would be forthcoming whether that's good enough for voters really to decide and not for us to decide. But it does raise the question over whether or not the Romney campaign has a messaging problem.  

 

Joining us this evening, Ari Fleischer, the former Bush White House spokesman and unpaid¹¹ occasional communication adviser to the Romney campaign.  Also Robert Reich, he's the former labor¹² secretary in the Clinton administration and the author of a new e-book which is called "Beyond Outrage¹³:  What's Gone Wrong with our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It."

1 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

2 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 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。

5 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

6 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。

7 stumped   

僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说

参考例句：

• Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活，然后很艰难地走出房间。
• He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌，半天说不出话来。

8 deductions   

扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演

参考例句：

• Many of the older officers trusted agents sightings more than cryptanalysts'deductions. 许多年纪比较大的军官往往相信特务的发现，而不怎么相信密码分析员的推断。
• You know how you rush at things,jump to conclusions without proper deductions. 你知道你处理问题是多么仓促，毫无合适的演绎就仓促下结论。

9 exemptions   

n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额

参考例句：

• The exemptions for interpretive rules, policy statements, and procedural rules have just been discussed. 有关解释性规则、政策说明和程序规则的免责我们刚刚讨论过。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• A: The regulation outlines specific exemptions for some WPM. 答：该规定概述了某些木质包装材料的特定的例外情形。 来自互联网

10 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

11 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。