VOA慢速英語:President Obama Wins Second Term

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, this is IN THE NEWS in Special English. [00:10.67]This week, Americans chose Barack Obama [00:15.17]for a second and final four-year term as president. [00:19.86]President Obama captured more than three hundred electoral votes, [00:25.96]defeating former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. [00:30.22]To win the presidency, a candidate needs at least [00:34.77]two hundred seventy electoral votes. [00:38.22]Early Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted deep [00:43.31]political differences in the country. [00:46.21]But he said Americans share certain hopes and dreams. [00:51.84]He said they rise or fall together as one nation and one people. [00:59.07]The president won re-election with the same coalition of voters [01:05.11]he had in two thousand eight: women, ethnic minorities and young people. [01:12.82]Historian Allan Lichtman says Mr. Obama profited from these groups this year. [01:20.55]"Women and minorities put Barack Obama over the top, [01:24.60]and there should be a big, huge red-letter warning sign for Republicans [01:29.50]that they can't win just with their white Protestant base. [01:33.77]We are increasingly becoming a non-white nation." [01:36.43]Alan Lichtman and other observers understand the changes [01:42.02]in America's growing population. [01:45.20]When Ronald Reagan was elected president in nineteen eighty, [01:50.86]whites made up eighty-five percent of the electorate. [01:55.81]This year, polling information showed [01:59.55]that seventy-two percent of all voters were white. [02:04.05]Thirteen percent of those voting were African-American – [02:08.96]the same percentage as four years ago. [02:12.93]The Hispanic vote grew from nine percent in two thousand eight [02:18.96]to ten percent this year. [02:21.77]Asian-Americans are a fast growing population in the United States. [02:28.14]Yet they made up just three percent of the electorate. [02:34.08]Of those asked, ninety-three percent of African Americans [02:40.01]reported voting for President Obama. [02:43.40]Seventy-one percent of Hispanics said they supported him. [02:49.86]Studies also found that over seventy percent of Asian Americans voted for Mr. Obama. [02:59.53]In addition to minorities, both women and young people [03:05.72]were more likely to support the president than Mister Romney. [03:10.72]Researcher Scott Rasmussen says there is an age difference in American politics. [03:18.90]He says people over the age of forty were more likely to support Mister Romney. [03:26.74]And, people under forty were more likely to vote for Mister Obama. [03:33.28]The president is facing a number of difficult issues [03:39.08]as he prepares for his second term. [03:42.56]They include the size of the federal budget deficit. [03:46.86]Mr. Obama and Congress will have to bury political differences [03:52.76]to solve what is being called "the fiscal cliff." [03:57.01]In his first official speech since being re-elected, [04:02.06]the president said he is calling on congressional leaders [04:06.50]for talks at the White House next week. [04:10.15]They will discuss how to avoid the required spending cuts [04:14.85]and tax increases that would affect all American workers on January first. [04:22.10]"What the American people are looking for is cooperation, [04:25.15]their looking for consensus, they're looking for common sense. [04:29.64]Most of all they want action. I intend to deliver for them in my second term. [04:34.34]And I expect to find willing partners in both parties. So let's get to work." [04:39.87]In the elections Tuesday, Republicans lost a few seats in the House of Representatives, [04:46.36]but not enough to lose their majority. [04:49.85]Mr. Obama's Democratic Party still controls the Senate.

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