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Rumours about 2008 Clinton v
Rice | |
It is three years and 233 days until the next
presidential election in the US, and only 50 days into President George W
Bush's second term.
But speculation is already reaching a fever pitch about possible
presidential candidates in 2008. The list of possible contenders began
almost immediately after Mr Bush won last November.
But this frenzy of
political prognostication is
being driven by an undeniably intriguing scenario - that pits Senator
Hillary Clinton against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Although Ms Rice has strained to find new ways of saying she is not
interested in a bid, the possible presidential match-up has the chattering classes so prematurely
worked up that they are having
a hard time letting go.
Ms Rice said she planned to return to academic life. Before she became
national security adviser during President Bush's first term, she was
provost at Stanford University
in California.
Or as she recently said at a State Department press conference: "I'm
going to try to be a good secretary of state, and then, as I've said many,
many times, there's always NFL (National Football League) commissioner."
She is a big fan of American football.
Despite of her repeated denials, several websites, blogs and other
grassroots still make great efforts to encourage her to run.
Ms Rice received glowing press after her recent European tour. And US
conservatives are looking for a candidate to counter their arch-nemesis:
Hillary Clinton. She is also the source of endless speculation about her
presidential ambitions.
Ms Rice just laughed and said she had no plans to run, but
conservatives are determined never to let another Clinton call the White
House home.
On the Republican side, Ms Rice comes in third behind former New York
City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain.
Most political experts will say that at this early stage, these polls
measure name recognition more than accurate levels of political support.
Ask most Americans who they would vote for in 2008, and they are most
likely to look at you in bewilderment and ask: "Didn't we just have an
election?"
University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato
believes all this early presidential speculation is driven largely by
journalists in election
withdrawal.
（Agencies) |
今天（3月17日）離下一屆美國(guó)總統(tǒng)大選還有三年零233天，現(xiàn)任美國(guó)總統(tǒng)喬治·布什的第二屆任期剛剛開(kāi)始了52天。
但關(guān)于2008年美國(guó)總統(tǒng)大選候選人的推測(cè)已經(jīng)炒得沸沸揚(yáng)揚(yáng)。去年11月布什前腳剛剛獲勝，可能參加下一任總統(tǒng)競(jìng)選的候選人名單緊接著就出爐了。
但是，這種狂熱的政治預(yù)言基于一種假設(shè)——參議員希拉里·克林頓和國(guó)務(wù)卿康多莉扎·賴(lài)斯展開(kāi)角逐——這樣的“對(duì)抗”無(wú)疑很有吸引力。
盡管賴(lài)斯盡力尋找新的方式來(lái)表明自己對(duì)競(jìng)選沒(méi)有興趣，卻總有一幫喋喋不休的人圍繞著未來(lái)可能發(fā)生的總統(tǒng)爭(zhēng)奪戰(zhàn)轉(zhuǎn)個(gè)不停，他們的情緒過(guò)早地被煽動(dòng)起來(lái)，想要平靜下來(lái)還需要度過(guò)一段艱難的時(shí)期。
賴(lài)斯說(shuō)她曾打算回到學(xué)術(shù)界。在布什第一任期內(nèi)成為國(guó)家安全顧問(wèn)之前，她擔(dān)任過(guò)加州斯坦福大學(xué)的教務(wù)長(zhǎng)。
或者就像她最近在美國(guó)國(guó)務(wù)院的一次新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上說(shuō)過(guò)的那樣：“我將努力成為一名出色的國(guó)務(wù)卿，然后，正如我曾很多次說(shuō)過(guò)的，我一直希望能成為美國(guó)國(guó)家橄欖球聯(lián)盟的主席。”她是橄欖球運(yùn)動(dòng)的鐵桿球迷。
盡管她一直否認(rèn)會(huì)參加2008年總統(tǒng)競(jìng)選，一些網(wǎng)站、博客論壇和其他“草根民眾”仍然大力鼓勵(lì)她參選。
最近的歐洲之行歸來(lái)以后，賴(lài)斯受到了很大的壓力，而且美國(guó)的保守派們正在尋找一位候選人來(lái)對(duì)抗他們的主要?jiǎng)艛诚＠铩た肆诸D。希拉里到底有沒(méi)有成為下一任總統(tǒng)的雄心壯志，自然也成了人們無(wú)休止的猜測(cè)話(huà)題。
賴(lài)斯只是笑著說(shuō)自己沒(méi)有參加競(jìng)選的計(jì)劃，但保守派成員們已經(jīng)決定再也不能讓另一個(gè)“克林頓”入主白宮。
在共和黨內(nèi)部，賴(lài)斯的支持率暫居第三，排在前紐約市長(zhǎng)魯?shù)婪颉ぶ炖材岷蛠喞Ｄ侵輩⒆h員約翰·麥凱恩之后。
大多數(shù)研究政治的專(zhuān)家們會(huì)說(shuō)，現(xiàn)階段所有的民意測(cè)驗(yàn)反映的主要是人物的知名度，而不是準(zhǔn)確的政治支持度。
如果你問(wèn)大多數(shù)美國(guó)人2008年會(huì)投誰(shuí)的票，他們很可能會(huì)困惑地看著你，問(wèn)道：“我們不是才選舉過(guò)一次了嗎？”
弗吉尼亞大學(xué)政治學(xué)系的教授拉里·薩巴托認(rèn)為，這些對(duì)未來(lái)總統(tǒng)人選的提前預(yù)測(cè)在很大程度上都是還沒(méi)戒掉“大選癮”的各路記者煽動(dòng)起來(lái)的。
（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2005-03-16 11:19