VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：OBAMA-LEADS-POLLS-IN-ROMNEY’S-HOME-STATE-OF-MICHIGAN.doc

1、ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faces an uphill battle to win his native state of Michigan in the November general election. President Barack Obama currently enjoys a lead there in early opinion polls, thanks to support from Michigans auto workers and Romneys own pu

2、blic statements.In November, Michigan college student Zachary Harner will cast his first vote in a presidential election. He said that vote will go to fellow Michigan native Mr. Romney.“He was born in Detroit. His father was governor of Michigan,” said Harner.Harner is from western Michigan, where g

3、rowing up on a farm he learned the values of hard work, something he thinks Romney appreciates.“I wake up at 3 in the morning, I come home at 10 at night, said Harner. I know what hard work is, and I that resonate(s) with Romney.”That kind of support is harder to find among workers in Detroit, Michi

4、gans largest city and home to the “Big 3” U.S. automakers.In 2008, when the auto industry sought government assistance to avoid financial collapse, Romney wrote an editorial for the New York Times headlined, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”That did not sit well with longtime Detroit autoworker George McGr

5、egor, who believes many automotive jobs in the place where Romney was born were saved because of the government financial help.“This is his home state, and hes not going to win Michigan. No hes not,” said McGregor.McGregor is now president of a local United Auto Workers union in Detroit that serves

6、almost 2,000 current workers and more than 5,000 retirees. He said statements secretly recorded at a May fundraiser where Romney referred to 47 percent of Americans as “victims” dependent on government assistance further upset many union members.“They are part of the 47 percent, and it hurt them, be

7、cause most of them worked 30 plus years, paid taxes, paid into social security. For an American to say that about another American is wrong,” he said.McGregor says Romneys criticism of President Obamas health care legislation and Romneys lack of support for government bailouts to the U.S. auto indus

8、try have all but assured President Obama a win here in November in his view.“Michigan is looking less and less like a swing state every day,” said University of Michigan Political Science Professor Michael Heaney. He said Obamas lead in recent polls is much less than his winning margin in the state

9、in the 2008 election.“The Michigan economy has been hit hard because of the Great Recession, and even though the Great Recession began before Obama became president, still because he is president, he bears some responsibility, and voters do hold him responsible for that. So these economic factors have really hurt Obamas lead here,” said Heaney.Harner hopes those economic factors will help Romney close the gap in Michigan once the public sees him challenge the president in televised debates in October.