----AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION2000
Who Are They?
Al Gore and Reorge W.Bush bothe continue political traditions set down by their families.
Al Gore was born just outside Carthage in Smith County, Tennessee, but split his time growing up between there and Washington, DC where 6)his father was a Senator. Gore attended Harvard and later 7)Vanderbilt where he studied Religion, then Law. After finishing school he enrolled in the Army and served in Vietnam, even though his father was one of the Vietnam War's harshest critics. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976 at the age of 28. In 1992, he was named Bill Clinton's running mate. This August he became the Democratic Party's candidate for President.
George W. grew up in West Texas in a town called Midland, the eldest of 6 children of George and Barbara Bush. George W. Bush's grandfather 8)Prescott Bush was a Senator in Connecticut. Then his father George Bush Sr. made it all the way to President in 1988. George W. studied at Yale, then Harvard before serving with the 9)Air National Guard in Texas, a move that helped him avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1988 George W. Bush served as an advisor for his fathers successful presidential bid.
Bush: My plan balances the budget. It funds needed priorities including defense and education. It reduces the 10)national debt...
Gore: ...and I'll devote the largest share of our 11)surplus to 12)paying down the national debt every year until it is completely eliminated by the year 2012.
Bush: There's $2.3 trillion of surplus that we can use to make sure that younger workers have a 13)Social Security plan in the future.
Gore: Here's my plan. I will keep Social Security in a 14)locked box...
When it comes to technology issues, Bush and Gore both favor a 15)tax credit for company research and development. Both favor e-Government that is using the web to make government more accessible to everyone, and both want Internet user privacy protected. The differences are minor.
Gore(in St. Louis, MO): You have the decision right here in the 16)Show Me State. You have the ability to show him what you want in the way of America's future. I want you to use your head to persuade the undecided voters. Tell them how strongly you feel about this.
Gore(in Michigan): Gore-Lieberman win! Michigan wins! 17)UAW wins! The people win! God bless you! Let's do it tomorrow...
It was an upbeat George W. Bush who returned home to Austin at the end of a 18)grueling campaign.
Bush: You're looking at the next President of the United States.
Bush had earlier swung through Iowa, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, Al Gore's home state.
Bush(in Tennessee): He may win Washington, DC, but he's not going to win Tennessee...
It's Just the Beginning
Good Evening. Voting has begun along the U.S. East Coast in the tightest presidential election for decades. 19)The first results came from two tiny hamlets in New Hampshire. In Dixville Notch, Texas Governor George W. Bush got 21 votes to Vice Presidents Al Gore's 5 and 1 for the 20)Green Party's 21)Ralph Nader. In Hart's Location, it was Bush 17, Gore 13 and Nader 1. Nationwide the race remains too close to call, but some late opinion polls are showing a swing towards Al Gore. It's equally tight in the race for the 22)all-important Electoral College votes, decided according to the winner in each state. 270 votes are needed for the presidency.
And MTV Chose or Lose Poll found that 25% of young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 cannot name the presidential candidates without prompting. And 70% can't identify the vice presidential candidates
Interviewer: Who are the 2 vice presidential candidates?
Interviewee 1: Lieberman and I don't know who the other one is.
Interviewee 2: McCain and ... God, what's the...
Interviewee 3: Lieberman for Gore and Cheney for Bush.
Interviewer: You're great with that.
Interviewee 3: All right !
Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: An important win for Vice President Al Gore, NBC News projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida ...
Peter Jennings of ABC News: We are now able to make a projection in the state of Florida. Al Gore wins the state of Florida ...
Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: NBC News is now taking Florida out of Vice President Gore's column ...
Peter Jennings of ABC News: ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.
Bush Campaign Chairman: George Bush, governor of Texas, will become the 43 president of the United States.
In Nashville, there is now 23)unanimity among his aids: he has lost. Gore calls Bush. He offers congratulations, and heads to the War Memorial to publicly 24)concede. Now, a night of high drama becomes positively 25)excruciating. Again, there is unanimity. This time that the race is not over.
Dan Rather of CBS: Bulletin: A senior Gore aid confirms, Gore withdraws concession.
Gore calls Bush for a second time. Bush is 26)incredulous, disbelieving. He tells Gore, "do what you have to do". Gore at some point tells Bush, he doesn't have to be "27)snippy." A 28)contentious call ends. In the middle of the night, the Washington Post stops the presses. Supporters are informed.
Gore Campaign Manager William Daley: Our campaign continues.
Bush Campaign Manager Don Evans: When it's all said and one, we will 29)prevail.
The crowds begin to thin out. The candidates go to sleep, still not knowing which one of them is the president elect.
November 8
And there is another complication. Some who voted in Florida yesterday are crying foul, saying the voting process was a mess, in places like, Palm Beach County, where the ballot was confusing, might have resulted in a lot of mistaken votes for 30)Pat Buchanan.
Who Is To Blame?
But we cannot get to the end of this broadcast without looking at what role we, in the media, played last night, though we are not certain what effect, if any, our mistaken projections in Florida had. The background is this: since 1980, 31)the television networks have made election projections based on voters telling exit pollsters how they voted, and some actual voting returns. It is almost always accurate. Last night, in an uncertain political environment we saw the result of two rare mistakes.
When the first returns came in, from certain 32)precincts, it looked like Al Gore's exit poll lead neatly matched his lead in those early key precincts, so the programmers said, you know, we can give the state to Gore because the lead, it's real. So 33)the expert vote counters, that worked for all the networks in New York, sent this message at 34)7:52 Eastern: In Florida, the presidential, Gore wins. The problem was they went too fast, and the networks competing to call states as quickly as possible, went along. Because it now appears that the first precincts that reported in were not typical. The match in fact was 35)flawed, and pretty quickly, Gore's lead began to disappear.
The second error came later. Around 2 am, George Bush was ahead, but then, he got a sudden and unexpected boost from, of all places, Broward County. That's a Gore county. Suddenly, Bush was 50,000 votes ahead, with 80% of the state in. First the Fox Network figured Al Gore can't catch up now, so they called the state, and very quickly, perhaps for competitive reasons, so did everybody else. But again, it turned out they moved too fast. Those first pro-Bush votes from Broward were quickly followed by thousands of pro-Gore votes. So Bush's 50,000 vote-lead was reduced very quickly to a lead of 224 votes. Time to 36)eat crow, again.
Well, I said we didn't know what effect, if any, we'd had. In fact we had some, in the form of premature congratulations from several capitals overseas. The leaders immediately issued statements congratulating George Bush. They, like us, took it back a little later on.
You Want To Gamble?
After one of the most 37)tumultuous elections in recent history, the campaign to win the White House continues into another week, sowing the seeds of 38)discord and uncertainty in Washington and in the markets along the way. The stock market, already nervous because of the slowing economy and warnings of about the 39)decelerating pace of future growth, took the political developments hard this week. At 1:30 on 40)Thursday afternoon, the Dow went into a 41)free fall when the Gore campaign announced that it would support legal actions in Florida.
While the result is still too close to call, the sometimes rocky relationship between China and the U.S. will remain important to the new administration. Republicans in Hong Kong say Sino-US ties are strategically crucial and that won't change, even if George W. Bush becomes president.
American in HK: You are gonna see a $1.3 Trillion 42)tax rebate, 43% of which will go to the top 1% of Americans. You'd see a breaking of 43)the balanced budget agreement...
Ahead of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, business groups say a Bush presidency would be better for free trade.
Not A Big Deal
There have been more 44)allegations of election 45)irregularities in the United States, the latest being in Wisconsin, where Gore led Bush by just more than 6,000 votes.
Dozens of students at 46)Marquette University in 47)Milwaukee are now openly 48)boasting: They voted more than once in last week's election.
Student: I realized that it wouldn't be impossible for me to vote again, and so that's what I did. I ended up voting four times that day, for myself.
It's not known who got the extra votes, but students say officials at the polling place did little to prevent it.
Student Editor: Their IDs weren't being checked. Their 49)proof of address wasn't being checked.
Michael McGraw, an editor of the campus newspaper, The Marquette Tribune, says a 50)canvass by his reporters found 141 students who admitted to voting more than once, which is a 51)felony offence.
Student editor: It kind of struck them like. "Felony offence? What are you talking about? I just voted twice, that's not that big a deal."
52)Dave Letterman: All kidding aside, here's my fear. Here's what I'm concerned about. If they keep demanding these recounts, if we don't put an end to these recounting, if the recounts don't stop, here's my fear, sooner or later, there's gonna be a winner. That's what I'm scared of... It can't go on like this...
Lesson One: Know Thy Country
Across the country, many students are following the 53)twists and turns of this presidential race as never before.
Student A: I don't think that the election is worth anything if it doesn't represent the will of the majority of people.
Student B: I'm just concerned about what a 54)laughing stock we are to the rest of the world.
So they ask, What's wrong with the system?
Teacher: If we lose faith in the voting process, we have a problem in this country.
Some kids have trouble understanding the Electoral College, or the fact that the candidate can win the popular vote, and still lose the race. But in this once in a life time election, these are lessons they are unlikely to forget.
Student C: When Jefferson and all those people decided on the electoral college system, they never ever dreamed it would ever get this close, and now that it has, it's really an incredible happening.
At the Packer 55)Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, this model Congress debated, then voted to abolish the Electoral College today, 11 to 3.
There's more to com
November 19
Here briefly is where we stand tonight. Lawyers for both sides have filed their arguments for tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing. The manual recounts continue in two Florida counties. They'll begin in another third tomorrow. A growing dispute over the rejection of some of those absentee ballots, absentee ballots which increased George W. Bush's slim lead to 930 votes in what remains an uncertified statewide account. Nothing now is more important than tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing and that's where we begin. ABC's Erin Hayes is in 56)Tallahassee tonight.
Both camps 57)scrambled to get their briefs in by deadline today. Hundreds of pages of argument and evidence that all 58)boiled down essentially to this, whether Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, abused her 59)discretion, by holding 60)hard and fast to last weeks deadline for accepting manually counted votes. It all goes before the seven-member Florida Supreme Court tomorrow. Almost all the justices are Democrats, but even many Republicans who know them say, Politics is not likely to 61)sway them.
這僅僅是一個笑話嗎
-----看美國總統(tǒng)大選
他們是誰？
艾爾·戈爾攻小布什都繼承了各自家庭從政的傳統(tǒng)
艾爾·戈爾出生在美國田納西州史密斯郡的卡爾撒奇。不過，因為他的父親是美國的參議員，他本人在卡爾撒奇和華盛頓兩地長大。戈爾先在哈佛大學上學，后來又在范德比爾特大學先后學習宗教和法律。完成學業(yè)后，戈爾報名參軍并赴越南服役，而戈爾的父親則是美國國內對越戰(zhàn)嚴厲的反對者之一。在一九七六年，二十八歲的戈爾被選入國會。在一九九二年，他成了比爾·克林頓的競選伙伴。今年(二零零零年)八月，戈爾成為美國民主黨的總統(tǒng)候選人。
小布什是喬治·布什和芭芭拉·布什六個孩子中的老大，在西得克薩斯州一個叫米德蘭的小鎮(zhèn)長大的。小布什的爺爺普雷斯科特·布什是來自康涅狄格州的參議員。他的父親老喬治·布什的從政之路一直走到一九八八年當選為美國總統(tǒng)。小布什先就讀于耶魯大學，然后又在哈佛大學上學。之后，他加入了美國的國民警衛(wèi)隊空軍，這一舉動使他避免了應征入伍而被派到越南去打仗的命運。在一九八八年，小布什成了他父親成功問鼎白宮競選活動中的一名顧問。
布什：我的計劃將能使平衡政府財政預算。我的計劃為急需的項目提供資金，這些方面包括國防、教育。我的計劃還將減少國債......
戈爾：......另外，我還將用政府預算盈余大的那一部分用來每年分期償還國債，一直到二零一二年徹底消除國債為止。
布什：有二點三兆美元的政府預算盈余可以用來確保年青人在未來能真正有一個社會保險計劃。
戈爾：我的計劃是這樣的：我會把社會保險放在一個安全的地方......
在科技方面，布什和戈爾都贊成為企業(yè)的研究與開發(fā)扣除課稅。兩人都支持電子政府的實現(xiàn)，讓每人都能更方便地使用政府的服務；兩人都支持互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的隱私權得到保護。在這方面，兩人的主張幾乎沒有什么不同。
戈爾(在密蘇里州的圣路易市)：在這個不輕信之州，主動權就在你們的手上。你可以告訴布什對于美國的未來，你們是怎么樣想的。我要你們動動腦子，去說服那些還沒有下定決心的選民，告訴他們你們堅決的主張。
戈爾(在密歇根州)：戈爾-利伯曼必勝！密歇根州必勝！聯(lián)合汽車工會必勝！人民必勝！上帝保佑你們！讓我們明天一起行動吧！
在緊張的競選活動之后，依然是精神飽滿的喬治·W.布什回到他在得克薩斯州首府奧斯丁的家。
布什：在你們面前的是美國下任總統(tǒng)。
在你在此之前，布什已經(jīng)去過衣阿華州、威斯康星州和戈爾的家鄉(xiāng)田納西州。
布什（在田納西州）：戈爾也許能贏得華盛頓特區(qū)，但他可贏不了田納西州......
好戲才剛剛開始
晚上好。在這次數(shù)十年來接近的總統(tǒng)選舉中，投票在美國的東岸已經(jīng)開始了。初的結果來自新罕布什州的兩個小村子，在迪西維爾峽，得克薩斯州州長小布什得了二十一票，副總統(tǒng)艾爾·戈爾得了五票，而綠黨的拉爾夫·納德只獲得一票。在哈茲區(qū)，他們三人的得票分別是十七票、十三票和一票。從全國來看，雙方勝負還很難決定，不過從一些新的投票結果表明，艾爾·戈爾稍勝一籌。在至關重要的選舉人投票中，雙方也是旗鼓相當。雙方在各個州的勝者將決定他們終獲得的選舉人的票數(shù)。要成功當選總統(tǒng)，候選人必須獲得二百七十張選舉人票。
MTV的"選擇還是錯過"民意測驗表明，在十八歲到二十四歲的年青人當中，在沒有提示的情況下，有百分之二十五的人不能說出誰是總統(tǒng)候選人，有百分之七十的人說不出誰是副總統(tǒng)候選人。
提問人：兩個副總統(tǒng)候選人是誰？
答者甲：利伯曼和......我不知道另一個是誰。
答者乙：麥凱恩和......天哪，是誰......
答者丙：戈爾的副總統(tǒng)候選人是利伯曼，布什的是切尼。
提問人：你在這方面還不錯嘛。
答者丙：嘩，真棒！
全國廣播公司的湯姆·布羅克：副總統(tǒng)戈爾贏了重要的一仗。我們全國廣播公司預測他贏得了佛羅里達州的二十五張選舉人票......
美國廣播公司的彼得·詹寧斯：現(xiàn)在，我們可以對佛羅里達州的選情做一個預測。艾爾·戈爾在這個州贏了。
全國廣播公司的湯姆·布羅克：我們全國廣播公司現(xiàn)在正把佛羅里達州從副總統(tǒng)戈爾所得的票數(shù)中減去。
美國廣播公司的彼得·詹寧斯：美國廣播公司現(xiàn)在預測佛羅里達州成了布什的囊中之物。
布什競選主席：得克薩斯州州長喬治·布什將成為第四十三任美國總統(tǒng)。
在納什維爾，戈爾的助手們達成一致：他輸了。戈爾致電布什，向他表示祝賀。接著，戈爾往市內的戰(zhàn)爭紀念碑出發(fā)，準備在那里公開承認失敗。就在這時，這一晚的戲劇性高潮毫無疑問到了令人難以忍受的頂點。戈爾的助手們再次達成一致，這的意見與上截然相反：競選還沒有結束。
哥倫比亞廣播公司的丹·拉瑟：公布欄：戈爾的一名高級顧問確認，戈爾撤回他的承認。
戈爾又致電小布什。小布什幾乎不敢相信這種事情。他告訴戈爾去"做你認為應該做的事"。期間，戈爾對布什說他沒有必要如此"目中無人"。充滿火藥味的對話結束了。深夜，《華盛頓郵報》的印刷機停了下來。雙方的支持者也得到了消息。
戈爾競選主任威廉·達利：我們的競選活動將繼續(xù)下去。
布什競選主任當·艾凡斯：等所有的這一切結束時，我們一定會勝利的。
人群慢慢散去了。帶著未知數(shù)，兩位候選人也去睡覺了
十一月八日
更加復雜的事情還在后頭。昨天，一些佛羅里達州的選民聲稱被愚弄了。他們說投票過程簡直是一團糟，在一些地方，像棕櫚灘郡，那里的選票非?；靵y，可能導致帕特·布坎南誤得不少選票
誰之過？
在這次節(jié)目結束之前，我們得看看我們媒體在昨晚的事件中究竟扮演了一個怎么樣的角色，雖說我們不敢肯定對佛羅里達州的錯誤預測是否造成了什么后果，或者說造成了怎么樣的后果。這件事的背景是這樣的：從一九八零年開始，電視廣播公司一直依靠選民給民意測驗者的資料和一些真實的選舉結果來進行投票預測。靠這種做法得到的結果一直都很準確。但在昨天晚上，在一個難以預料的政治環(huán)境下，我們目睹了兩個罕見的錯誤。
從第一批統(tǒng)計結果來看，艾爾·戈爾情況與早些時候一些關鍵選區(qū)的情況相吻合，這時，程序員覺得戈爾的地位是確實無疑的，我們應該可以把佛羅里達州的選舉人票給戈爾了。于是，為紐約所有的電視廣播公司服務的經(jīng)驗豐富的投票統(tǒng)計人員在東岸時間七點五十二分發(fā)出了這樣一條信息：佛羅里達州，總統(tǒng)選舉，戈爾取勝。問題是他們太急了。急于公布各州選舉結果的電視廣播公司也跟著錯了。因為接著發(fā)現(xiàn)報告中反映的第一批選區(qū)的情況并不夠典型，與實際相吻合的形勢是有缺陷的，很快地，戈爾的消失了。
晚些時候又發(fā)現(xiàn)了第二個錯誤。在次日(十一月八日)的凌晨兩點，喬治·布什不僅，而且突然間從布勞沃德郡得到意想不到的收獲。那可是戈爾的地盤。在已經(jīng)統(tǒng)計的百分之八十選票里，布什一下子了五萬票。首先是福克斯電視網(wǎng)絡算出戈爾已經(jīng)不可能追上來了，所以他們宣布了對這個州的預測。也許是相互競爭的緣故，其它電視臺很快地也跟了上來?？墒牵麄冞@次還是太急躁了。數(shù)以千計的戈爾支持者的選票很快追上了第一批布勞沃德郡的布什支持者的選票。布什的票數(shù)很快從五萬張降到二百二十四張。
我說了，我不知道我們昨晚的做法造成了什么影響。其實，影響還是有的。這就是從一些國家的首都發(fā)來的倉促賀電。像我們一樣，這些國家的元首在晚些時候收回了他們的話。
敢賭一把嗎？
在經(jīng)歷了歷混亂的大選后，贏得白宮的爭斗還繼續(xù)。這不僅僅在華府埋下了不協(xié)調的伏筆，也給市場帶來不穩(wěn)定的因素。股市本來就因為增長減慢的經(jīng)濟和關于未來經(jīng)濟增長緩慢的警告而提心吊膽的，而大選政治更讓股市這一周受到重創(chuàng)。在戈爾宣布會支持在佛羅里達州采取法律行動后，星期四下午一點半，道瓊斯工業(yè)指數(shù)急速下跌。
美國的大選結果還沒有后的結果，而搖擺不定的中美關系對新政府來說仍然是很重要的。在香港的美國共和黨人說，中美關系有著至關重要的戰(zhàn)略性地位，即使是喬治·W.布什當選也不會改變的。
在香港的美國人：(如果布什上臺的話) 報稅回扣將達一點三兆美元，美國富裕的百分之一的人中將獲得其中的百分之四十三。早先達成的政府財政預算平衡的協(xié)議也將失效......
在中國進入國際貿(mào)易組織的前夕，商界認為布什當選會對自由貿(mào)易更為有利。
沒有什么大不了的
在美國，又有更多關于大選投票違規(guī)行為的指控。新的事件來自威斯康星州。在那里，戈爾比布什六千多票。
有十幾個密爾沃基的馬凱特大學學生公開夸耀，說自己在上星期的投票中投了不止一票。
學生：我想，不知有沒有可能再去投一票，所以我就又去投了一票。那天，我自己結果投了四票。
無人知道究竟是那位候選人得到這些多投的票，但學生說投票站的官員并沒有采取什么有效措施來防止類似情況的發(fā)生。
學生編輯：沒人檢查學生的身份證，也沒有人查他們的居住地證明。
米高·麥格勞是學生報紙《馬凱特論壇》的編輯，他說他的手下做了一個調查，發(fā)現(xiàn)有一百四十一個學生承認那天投票不止。這種行為是一項重罪。
學生編輯：他們覺得很愕然?！爸刈铮窟@叫什么話？我只不過是投了兩次票而已，這有什么大不了的。"
戴夫·萊特曼：先把玩笑放到一邊，我怕的是這個。我真正關心的這個：如果他們不停地要求重點選票，如果我們不結束沒完沒了的選票重點，如果重新點票不結束的話，我擔心的是早晚一定會有一個贏家。這就是讓我真正感到害怕的。這件事不能再這樣繼續(xù)下去......
第一課：了解你的國家
在全國，許多學生也前所未有的關注著這場總統(tǒng)大選。
學生甲：我覺得要是選舉不代表大多數(shù)人的意愿的話就沒有意思。
學生乙：我關心的是我們已成了世界上遭恥笑的對象。
因此，學生問道：我們的制度出了什么問題？
老師：如果我們對投票程序失去了信心，這個國家就很成問題了。
有些學生搞不懂選舉人制度，也不明白為什么候選人在普選中落敗但卻能后勝出。不過，這次千載難逢的選舉給他們上了難忘的一課。
學生丙：杰弗遜和其他人在設立選舉人制度的時候，他們從來沒有想過會出現(xiàn)這種情況。而現(xiàn)在這種事情發(fā)生了，真是不可思議。
在布魯克林的帕克大學院，學生今天模仿國會進行辯論，他們終投票取消選舉人制度，十一比三。
精彩的還在后頭......
十一月十九日
現(xiàn)在的情況簡單來說是這樣。雙方的律師就明天佛羅里達州高法院的聽證提出訴訟。同時，手工計票在佛羅里達的兩個郡繼續(xù)進行。明天，會有第三個郡開始手工票。雙方為是否應該拒絕其中的一些缺席選票而吵得不可開交，缺席選票已把喬治·W.布什的微弱優(yōu)勢增加到九百三十票。而佛羅里達州的選票數(shù)目還沒有被官方公開證實。現(xiàn)在重要的是明天佛羅里達州的聽證會。我們也從這里開始。請聽美國廣播公司艾琳·海斯在塔拉哈西的報道。
雙方今天匆匆忙忙地趕在期限前提交各自的訴訟要點。數(shù)百頁訴訟文件的要點都圍繞一個問題：佛羅里達州州務卿凱瑟琳·哈里斯上星期在堅持接受人工計票的后期究竟有沒有濫用權利。明天，這些都將由有七個成員組成的佛羅里達州高法院決定。幾乎所有的法官都是民主黨人，但很多認識他們的共和黨人也說，他們是不會輕易被政治左右的。
1) fuel vt.支持，刺激
2) dramatic a.激動人心的，惹人注目的
3) billow vi. 波濤洶涌，如波浪一般飄動
4) stockrider n. 騎馬的牧羊人或牧牛人，牛仔注釋
5) G'Day: Good day, 即”你好” 注釋
6) 這首歌由澳大利亞小姑娘妮琦·韋伯斯特（Nikki Webster）演唱
7) breed n. （遺傳）品種；種族，品種；種，族注釋
8) compatriot n. 同胞，同國人 9) springboard n. 跳板
10) synchronize vt. 使在時間上一致，使同步
11) lag vi. 落后，延遲
Who Are They?
Al Gore and Reorge W.Bush bothe continue political traditions set down by their families.
Al Gore was born just outside Carthage in Smith County, Tennessee, but split his time growing up between there and Washington, DC where 6)his father was a Senator. Gore attended Harvard and later 7)Vanderbilt where he studied Religion, then Law. After finishing school he enrolled in the Army and served in Vietnam, even though his father was one of the Vietnam War's harshest critics. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976 at the age of 28. In 1992, he was named Bill Clinton's running mate. This August he became the Democratic Party's candidate for President.
George W. grew up in West Texas in a town called Midland, the eldest of 6 children of George and Barbara Bush. George W. Bush's grandfather 8)Prescott Bush was a Senator in Connecticut. Then his father George Bush Sr. made it all the way to President in 1988. George W. studied at Yale, then Harvard before serving with the 9)Air National Guard in Texas, a move that helped him avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1988 George W. Bush served as an advisor for his fathers successful presidential bid.
Bush: My plan balances the budget. It funds needed priorities including defense and education. It reduces the 10)national debt...
Gore: ...and I'll devote the largest share of our 11)surplus to 12)paying down the national debt every year until it is completely eliminated by the year 2012.
Bush: There's $2.3 trillion of surplus that we can use to make sure that younger workers have a 13)Social Security plan in the future.
Gore: Here's my plan. I will keep Social Security in a 14)locked box...
When it comes to technology issues, Bush and Gore both favor a 15)tax credit for company research and development. Both favor e-Government that is using the web to make government more accessible to everyone, and both want Internet user privacy protected. The differences are minor.
Gore(in St. Louis, MO): You have the decision right here in the 16)Show Me State. You have the ability to show him what you want in the way of America's future. I want you to use your head to persuade the undecided voters. Tell them how strongly you feel about this.
Gore(in Michigan): Gore-Lieberman win! Michigan wins! 17)UAW wins! The people win! God bless you! Let's do it tomorrow...
It was an upbeat George W. Bush who returned home to Austin at the end of a 18)grueling campaign.
Bush: You're looking at the next President of the United States.
Bush had earlier swung through Iowa, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, Al Gore's home state.
Bush(in Tennessee): He may win Washington, DC, but he's not going to win Tennessee...
It's Just the Beginning
Good Evening. Voting has begun along the U.S. East Coast in the tightest presidential election for decades. 19)The first results came from two tiny hamlets in New Hampshire. In Dixville Notch, Texas Governor George W. Bush got 21 votes to Vice Presidents Al Gore's 5 and 1 for the 20)Green Party's 21)Ralph Nader. In Hart's Location, it was Bush 17, Gore 13 and Nader 1. Nationwide the race remains too close to call, but some late opinion polls are showing a swing towards Al Gore. It's equally tight in the race for the 22)all-important Electoral College votes, decided according to the winner in each state. 270 votes are needed for the presidency.
And MTV Chose or Lose Poll found that 25% of young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 cannot name the presidential candidates without prompting. And 70% can't identify the vice presidential candidates
Interviewer: Who are the 2 vice presidential candidates?
Interviewee 1: Lieberman and I don't know who the other one is.
Interviewee 2: McCain and ... God, what's the...
Interviewee 3: Lieberman for Gore and Cheney for Bush.
Interviewer: You're great with that.
Interviewee 3: All right !
Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: An important win for Vice President Al Gore, NBC News projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida ...
Peter Jennings of ABC News: We are now able to make a projection in the state of Florida. Al Gore wins the state of Florida ...
Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: NBC News is now taking Florida out of Vice President Gore's column ...
Peter Jennings of ABC News: ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.
Bush Campaign Chairman: George Bush, governor of Texas, will become the 43 president of the United States.
In Nashville, there is now 23)unanimity among his aids: he has lost. Gore calls Bush. He offers congratulations, and heads to the War Memorial to publicly 24)concede. Now, a night of high drama becomes positively 25)excruciating. Again, there is unanimity. This time that the race is not over.
Dan Rather of CBS: Bulletin: A senior Gore aid confirms, Gore withdraws concession.
Gore calls Bush for a second time. Bush is 26)incredulous, disbelieving. He tells Gore, "do what you have to do". Gore at some point tells Bush, he doesn't have to be "27)snippy." A 28)contentious call ends. In the middle of the night, the Washington Post stops the presses. Supporters are informed.
Gore Campaign Manager William Daley: Our campaign continues.
Bush Campaign Manager Don Evans: When it's all said and one, we will 29)prevail.
The crowds begin to thin out. The candidates go to sleep, still not knowing which one of them is the president elect.
November 8
And there is another complication. Some who voted in Florida yesterday are crying foul, saying the voting process was a mess, in places like, Palm Beach County, where the ballot was confusing, might have resulted in a lot of mistaken votes for 30)Pat Buchanan.
Who Is To Blame?
But we cannot get to the end of this broadcast without looking at what role we, in the media, played last night, though we are not certain what effect, if any, our mistaken projections in Florida had. The background is this: since 1980, 31)the television networks have made election projections based on voters telling exit pollsters how they voted, and some actual voting returns. It is almost always accurate. Last night, in an uncertain political environment we saw the result of two rare mistakes.
When the first returns came in, from certain 32)precincts, it looked like Al Gore's exit poll lead neatly matched his lead in those early key precincts, so the programmers said, you know, we can give the state to Gore because the lead, it's real. So 33)the expert vote counters, that worked for all the networks in New York, sent this message at 34)7:52 Eastern: In Florida, the presidential, Gore wins. The problem was they went too fast, and the networks competing to call states as quickly as possible, went along. Because it now appears that the first precincts that reported in were not typical. The match in fact was 35)flawed, and pretty quickly, Gore's lead began to disappear.
The second error came later. Around 2 am, George Bush was ahead, but then, he got a sudden and unexpected boost from, of all places, Broward County. That's a Gore county. Suddenly, Bush was 50,000 votes ahead, with 80% of the state in. First the Fox Network figured Al Gore can't catch up now, so they called the state, and very quickly, perhaps for competitive reasons, so did everybody else. But again, it turned out they moved too fast. Those first pro-Bush votes from Broward were quickly followed by thousands of pro-Gore votes. So Bush's 50,000 vote-lead was reduced very quickly to a lead of 224 votes. Time to 36)eat crow, again.
Well, I said we didn't know what effect, if any, we'd had. In fact we had some, in the form of premature congratulations from several capitals overseas. The leaders immediately issued statements congratulating George Bush. They, like us, took it back a little later on.
You Want To Gamble?
After one of the most 37)tumultuous elections in recent history, the campaign to win the White House continues into another week, sowing the seeds of 38)discord and uncertainty in Washington and in the markets along the way. The stock market, already nervous because of the slowing economy and warnings of about the 39)decelerating pace of future growth, took the political developments hard this week. At 1:30 on 40)Thursday afternoon, the Dow went into a 41)free fall when the Gore campaign announced that it would support legal actions in Florida.
While the result is still too close to call, the sometimes rocky relationship between China and the U.S. will remain important to the new administration. Republicans in Hong Kong say Sino-US ties are strategically crucial and that won't change, even if George W. Bush becomes president.
American in HK: You are gonna see a $1.3 Trillion 42)tax rebate, 43% of which will go to the top 1% of Americans. You'd see a breaking of 43)the balanced budget agreement...
Ahead of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, business groups say a Bush presidency would be better for free trade.
Not A Big Deal
There have been more 44)allegations of election 45)irregularities in the United States, the latest being in Wisconsin, where Gore led Bush by just more than 6,000 votes.
Dozens of students at 46)Marquette University in 47)Milwaukee are now openly 48)boasting: They voted more than once in last week's election.
Student: I realized that it wouldn't be impossible for me to vote again, and so that's what I did. I ended up voting four times that day, for myself.
It's not known who got the extra votes, but students say officials at the polling place did little to prevent it.
Student Editor: Their IDs weren't being checked. Their 49)proof of address wasn't being checked.
Michael McGraw, an editor of the campus newspaper, The Marquette Tribune, says a 50)canvass by his reporters found 141 students who admitted to voting more than once, which is a 51)felony offence.
Student editor: It kind of struck them like. "Felony offence? What are you talking about? I just voted twice, that's not that big a deal."
52)Dave Letterman: All kidding aside, here's my fear. Here's what I'm concerned about. If they keep demanding these recounts, if we don't put an end to these recounting, if the recounts don't stop, here's my fear, sooner or later, there's gonna be a winner. That's what I'm scared of... It can't go on like this...
Lesson One: Know Thy Country
Across the country, many students are following the 53)twists and turns of this presidential race as never before.
Student A: I don't think that the election is worth anything if it doesn't represent the will of the majority of people.
Student B: I'm just concerned about what a 54)laughing stock we are to the rest of the world.
So they ask, What's wrong with the system?
Teacher: If we lose faith in the voting process, we have a problem in this country.
Some kids have trouble understanding the Electoral College, or the fact that the candidate can win the popular vote, and still lose the race. But in this once in a life time election, these are lessons they are unlikely to forget.
Student C: When Jefferson and all those people decided on the electoral college system, they never ever dreamed it would ever get this close, and now that it has, it's really an incredible happening.
At the Packer 55)Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, this model Congress debated, then voted to abolish the Electoral College today, 11 to 3.
There's more to com
November 19
Here briefly is where we stand tonight. Lawyers for both sides have filed their arguments for tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing. The manual recounts continue in two Florida counties. They'll begin in another third tomorrow. A growing dispute over the rejection of some of those absentee ballots, absentee ballots which increased George W. Bush's slim lead to 930 votes in what remains an uncertified statewide account. Nothing now is more important than tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing and that's where we begin. ABC's Erin Hayes is in 56)Tallahassee tonight.
Both camps 57)scrambled to get their briefs in by deadline today. Hundreds of pages of argument and evidence that all 58)boiled down essentially to this, whether Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, abused her 59)discretion, by holding 60)hard and fast to last weeks deadline for accepting manually counted votes. It all goes before the seven-member Florida Supreme Court tomorrow. Almost all the justices are Democrats, but even many Republicans who know them say, Politics is not likely to 61)sway them.
這僅僅是一個笑話嗎
-----看美國總統(tǒng)大選
他們是誰？
艾爾·戈爾攻小布什都繼承了各自家庭從政的傳統(tǒng)
艾爾·戈爾出生在美國田納西州史密斯郡的卡爾撒奇。不過，因為他的父親是美國的參議員，他本人在卡爾撒奇和華盛頓兩地長大。戈爾先在哈佛大學上學，后來又在范德比爾特大學先后學習宗教和法律。完成學業(yè)后，戈爾報名參軍并赴越南服役，而戈爾的父親則是美國國內對越戰(zhàn)嚴厲的反對者之一。在一九七六年，二十八歲的戈爾被選入國會。在一九九二年，他成了比爾·克林頓的競選伙伴。今年(二零零零年)八月，戈爾成為美國民主黨的總統(tǒng)候選人。
小布什是喬治·布什和芭芭拉·布什六個孩子中的老大，在西得克薩斯州一個叫米德蘭的小鎮(zhèn)長大的。小布什的爺爺普雷斯科特·布什是來自康涅狄格州的參議員。他的父親老喬治·布什的從政之路一直走到一九八八年當選為美國總統(tǒng)。小布什先就讀于耶魯大學，然后又在哈佛大學上學。之后，他加入了美國的國民警衛(wèi)隊空軍，這一舉動使他避免了應征入伍而被派到越南去打仗的命運。在一九八八年，小布什成了他父親成功問鼎白宮競選活動中的一名顧問。
布什：我的計劃將能使平衡政府財政預算。我的計劃為急需的項目提供資金，這些方面包括國防、教育。我的計劃還將減少國債......
戈爾：......另外，我還將用政府預算盈余大的那一部分用來每年分期償還國債，一直到二零一二年徹底消除國債為止。
布什：有二點三兆美元的政府預算盈余可以用來確保年青人在未來能真正有一個社會保險計劃。
戈爾：我的計劃是這樣的：我會把社會保險放在一個安全的地方......
在科技方面，布什和戈爾都贊成為企業(yè)的研究與開發(fā)扣除課稅。兩人都支持電子政府的實現(xiàn)，讓每人都能更方便地使用政府的服務；兩人都支持互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的隱私權得到保護。在這方面，兩人的主張幾乎沒有什么不同。
戈爾(在密蘇里州的圣路易市)：在這個不輕信之州，主動權就在你們的手上。你可以告訴布什對于美國的未來，你們是怎么樣想的。我要你們動動腦子，去說服那些還沒有下定決心的選民，告訴他們你們堅決的主張。
戈爾(在密歇根州)：戈爾-利伯曼必勝！密歇根州必勝！聯(lián)合汽車工會必勝！人民必勝！上帝保佑你們！讓我們明天一起行動吧！
在緊張的競選活動之后，依然是精神飽滿的喬治·W.布什回到他在得克薩斯州首府奧斯丁的家。
布什：在你們面前的是美國下任總統(tǒng)。
在你在此之前，布什已經(jīng)去過衣阿華州、威斯康星州和戈爾的家鄉(xiāng)田納西州。
布什（在田納西州）：戈爾也許能贏得華盛頓特區(qū)，但他可贏不了田納西州......
好戲才剛剛開始
晚上好。在這次數(shù)十年來接近的總統(tǒng)選舉中，投票在美國的東岸已經(jīng)開始了。初的結果來自新罕布什州的兩個小村子，在迪西維爾峽，得克薩斯州州長小布什得了二十一票，副總統(tǒng)艾爾·戈爾得了五票，而綠黨的拉爾夫·納德只獲得一票。在哈茲區(qū)，他們三人的得票分別是十七票、十三票和一票。從全國來看，雙方勝負還很難決定，不過從一些新的投票結果表明，艾爾·戈爾稍勝一籌。在至關重要的選舉人投票中，雙方也是旗鼓相當。雙方在各個州的勝者將決定他們終獲得的選舉人的票數(shù)。要成功當選總統(tǒng)，候選人必須獲得二百七十張選舉人票。
MTV的"選擇還是錯過"民意測驗表明，在十八歲到二十四歲的年青人當中，在沒有提示的情況下，有百分之二十五的人不能說出誰是總統(tǒng)候選人，有百分之七十的人說不出誰是副總統(tǒng)候選人。
提問人：兩個副總統(tǒng)候選人是誰？
答者甲：利伯曼和......我不知道另一個是誰。
答者乙：麥凱恩和......天哪，是誰......
答者丙：戈爾的副總統(tǒng)候選人是利伯曼，布什的是切尼。
提問人：你在這方面還不錯嘛。
答者丙：嘩，真棒！
全國廣播公司的湯姆·布羅克：副總統(tǒng)戈爾贏了重要的一仗。我們全國廣播公司預測他贏得了佛羅里達州的二十五張選舉人票......
美國廣播公司的彼得·詹寧斯：現(xiàn)在，我們可以對佛羅里達州的選情做一個預測。艾爾·戈爾在這個州贏了。
全國廣播公司的湯姆·布羅克：我們全國廣播公司現(xiàn)在正把佛羅里達州從副總統(tǒng)戈爾所得的票數(shù)中減去。
美國廣播公司的彼得·詹寧斯：美國廣播公司現(xiàn)在預測佛羅里達州成了布什的囊中之物。
布什競選主席：得克薩斯州州長喬治·布什將成為第四十三任美國總統(tǒng)。
在納什維爾，戈爾的助手們達成一致：他輸了。戈爾致電布什，向他表示祝賀。接著，戈爾往市內的戰(zhàn)爭紀念碑出發(fā)，準備在那里公開承認失敗。就在這時，這一晚的戲劇性高潮毫無疑問到了令人難以忍受的頂點。戈爾的助手們再次達成一致，這的意見與上截然相反：競選還沒有結束。
哥倫比亞廣播公司的丹·拉瑟：公布欄：戈爾的一名高級顧問確認，戈爾撤回他的承認。
戈爾又致電小布什。小布什幾乎不敢相信這種事情。他告訴戈爾去"做你認為應該做的事"。期間，戈爾對布什說他沒有必要如此"目中無人"。充滿火藥味的對話結束了。深夜，《華盛頓郵報》的印刷機停了下來。雙方的支持者也得到了消息。
戈爾競選主任威廉·達利：我們的競選活動將繼續(xù)下去。
布什競選主任當·艾凡斯：等所有的這一切結束時，我們一定會勝利的。
人群慢慢散去了。帶著未知數(shù)，兩位候選人也去睡覺了
十一月八日
更加復雜的事情還在后頭。昨天，一些佛羅里達州的選民聲稱被愚弄了。他們說投票過程簡直是一團糟，在一些地方，像棕櫚灘郡，那里的選票非?；靵y，可能導致帕特·布坎南誤得不少選票
誰之過？
在這次節(jié)目結束之前，我們得看看我們媒體在昨晚的事件中究竟扮演了一個怎么樣的角色，雖說我們不敢肯定對佛羅里達州的錯誤預測是否造成了什么后果，或者說造成了怎么樣的后果。這件事的背景是這樣的：從一九八零年開始，電視廣播公司一直依靠選民給民意測驗者的資料和一些真實的選舉結果來進行投票預測。靠這種做法得到的結果一直都很準確。但在昨天晚上，在一個難以預料的政治環(huán)境下，我們目睹了兩個罕見的錯誤。
從第一批統(tǒng)計結果來看，艾爾·戈爾情況與早些時候一些關鍵選區(qū)的情況相吻合，這時，程序員覺得戈爾的地位是確實無疑的，我們應該可以把佛羅里達州的選舉人票給戈爾了。于是，為紐約所有的電視廣播公司服務的經(jīng)驗豐富的投票統(tǒng)計人員在東岸時間七點五十二分發(fā)出了這樣一條信息：佛羅里達州，總統(tǒng)選舉，戈爾取勝。問題是他們太急了。急于公布各州選舉結果的電視廣播公司也跟著錯了。因為接著發(fā)現(xiàn)報告中反映的第一批選區(qū)的情況并不夠典型，與實際相吻合的形勢是有缺陷的，很快地，戈爾的消失了。
晚些時候又發(fā)現(xiàn)了第二個錯誤。在次日(十一月八日)的凌晨兩點，喬治·布什不僅，而且突然間從布勞沃德郡得到意想不到的收獲。那可是戈爾的地盤。在已經(jīng)統(tǒng)計的百分之八十選票里，布什一下子了五萬票。首先是福克斯電視網(wǎng)絡算出戈爾已經(jīng)不可能追上來了，所以他們宣布了對這個州的預測。也許是相互競爭的緣故，其它電視臺很快地也跟了上來?？墒牵麄冞@次還是太急躁了。數(shù)以千計的戈爾支持者的選票很快追上了第一批布勞沃德郡的布什支持者的選票。布什的票數(shù)很快從五萬張降到二百二十四張。
我說了，我不知道我們昨晚的做法造成了什么影響。其實，影響還是有的。這就是從一些國家的首都發(fā)來的倉促賀電。像我們一樣，這些國家的元首在晚些時候收回了他們的話。
敢賭一把嗎？
在經(jīng)歷了歷混亂的大選后，贏得白宮的爭斗還繼續(xù)。這不僅僅在華府埋下了不協(xié)調的伏筆，也給市場帶來不穩(wěn)定的因素。股市本來就因為增長減慢的經(jīng)濟和關于未來經(jīng)濟增長緩慢的警告而提心吊膽的，而大選政治更讓股市這一周受到重創(chuàng)。在戈爾宣布會支持在佛羅里達州采取法律行動后，星期四下午一點半，道瓊斯工業(yè)指數(shù)急速下跌。
美國的大選結果還沒有后的結果，而搖擺不定的中美關系對新政府來說仍然是很重要的。在香港的美國共和黨人說，中美關系有著至關重要的戰(zhàn)略性地位，即使是喬治·W.布什當選也不會改變的。
在香港的美國人：(如果布什上臺的話) 報稅回扣將達一點三兆美元，美國富裕的百分之一的人中將獲得其中的百分之四十三。早先達成的政府財政預算平衡的協(xié)議也將失效......
在中國進入國際貿(mào)易組織的前夕，商界認為布什當選會對自由貿(mào)易更為有利。
沒有什么大不了的
在美國，又有更多關于大選投票違規(guī)行為的指控。新的事件來自威斯康星州。在那里，戈爾比布什六千多票。
有十幾個密爾沃基的馬凱特大學學生公開夸耀，說自己在上星期的投票中投了不止一票。
學生：我想，不知有沒有可能再去投一票，所以我就又去投了一票。那天，我自己結果投了四票。
無人知道究竟是那位候選人得到這些多投的票，但學生說投票站的官員并沒有采取什么有效措施來防止類似情況的發(fā)生。
學生編輯：沒人檢查學生的身份證，也沒有人查他們的居住地證明。
米高·麥格勞是學生報紙《馬凱特論壇》的編輯，他說他的手下做了一個調查，發(fā)現(xiàn)有一百四十一個學生承認那天投票不止。這種行為是一項重罪。
學生編輯：他們覺得很愕然?！爸刈铮窟@叫什么話？我只不過是投了兩次票而已，這有什么大不了的。"
戴夫·萊特曼：先把玩笑放到一邊，我怕的是這個。我真正關心的這個：如果他們不停地要求重點選票，如果我們不結束沒完沒了的選票重點，如果重新點票不結束的話，我擔心的是早晚一定會有一個贏家。這就是讓我真正感到害怕的。這件事不能再這樣繼續(xù)下去......
第一課：了解你的國家
在全國，許多學生也前所未有的關注著這場總統(tǒng)大選。
學生甲：我覺得要是選舉不代表大多數(shù)人的意愿的話就沒有意思。
學生乙：我關心的是我們已成了世界上遭恥笑的對象。
因此，學生問道：我們的制度出了什么問題？
老師：如果我們對投票程序失去了信心，這個國家就很成問題了。
有些學生搞不懂選舉人制度，也不明白為什么候選人在普選中落敗但卻能后勝出。不過，這次千載難逢的選舉給他們上了難忘的一課。
學生丙：杰弗遜和其他人在設立選舉人制度的時候，他們從來沒有想過會出現(xiàn)這種情況。而現(xiàn)在這種事情發(fā)生了，真是不可思議。
在布魯克林的帕克大學院，學生今天模仿國會進行辯論，他們終投票取消選舉人制度，十一比三。
精彩的還在后頭......
十一月十九日
現(xiàn)在的情況簡單來說是這樣。雙方的律師就明天佛羅里達州高法院的聽證提出訴訟。同時，手工計票在佛羅里達的兩個郡繼續(xù)進行。明天，會有第三個郡開始手工票。雙方為是否應該拒絕其中的一些缺席選票而吵得不可開交，缺席選票已把喬治·W.布什的微弱優(yōu)勢增加到九百三十票。而佛羅里達州的選票數(shù)目還沒有被官方公開證實。現(xiàn)在重要的是明天佛羅里達州的聽證會。我們也從這里開始。請聽美國廣播公司艾琳·海斯在塔拉哈西的報道。
雙方今天匆匆忙忙地趕在期限前提交各自的訴訟要點。數(shù)百頁訴訟文件的要點都圍繞一個問題：佛羅里達州州務卿凱瑟琳·哈里斯上星期在堅持接受人工計票的后期究竟有沒有濫用權利。明天，這些都將由有七個成員組成的佛羅里達州高法院決定。幾乎所有的法官都是民主黨人，但很多認識他們的共和黨人也說，他們是不會輕易被政治左右的。
1) fuel vt.支持，刺激
2) dramatic a.激動人心的，惹人注目的
3) billow vi. 波濤洶涌，如波浪一般飄動
4) stockrider n. 騎馬的牧羊人或牧牛人，牛仔注釋
5) G'Day: Good day, 即”你好” 注釋
6) 這首歌由澳大利亞小姑娘妮琦·韋伯斯特（Nikki Webster）演唱
7) breed n. （遺傳）品種；種族，品種；種，族注釋
8) compatriot n. 同胞，同國人 9) springboard n. 跳板
10) synchronize vt. 使在時間上一致，使同步
11) lag vi. 落后，延遲