奧巴馬支持率優勢擴大,領先羅姆尼8%

WASHINGTON -- A dozen national polls conducted over the past week have produced a range of results, mostly indicating either a dead heat or a narrow advantage for President Barack Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney. A new survey from the Pew Research Center, however, gives Obama his biggest lead yet.

華盛頓消息：過去一週內多項民意調查顯示了一系列結果，大都暗示了總統貝拉克•奧巴馬與共和黨候選人米特•羅姆尼之間旗鼓相當或優勢不明顯。然而，從皮尤研究中心的一項新調查給了奧巴馬最大的領先優勢。

The Pew Research survey shows Obama running 8 percentage points ahead of Romney (51 to 43 percent) among 2,192 likely voters interviewed from Sept. 12 to 16. This result is more favorable to the president than other recent polls。

皮尤研究調查顯示，從9月12號至16日在對2192位潛在選民的調查中奧巴馬領先了羅姆尼8個百分點（51%比43％）。這個結果比最近的其他民調對總統更有利。

As of this hour,the HuffPost Pollster tracking model, based on all available public polls, shows Obama with a lead of slightly more than 2 points nationwide.

這一刻，基於所有可用的民意調查的赫芬頓郵報民調跟蹤模型顯示，全國範圍內奧巴馬領先了超過2個百分點。

Pew Research has typically produced results a few percentage points better for Obama than other polls, but Pew's earlier results reflected all registered voters. This survey marks the first by Pew Research in 2012 to report results for the narrower slice of voters deemed most likely to actually vote. Among a larger sample of registered voters, Pew shows a 9-point Obama advantage (51 to 42 percent), roughly the same as the margin it found among registered voters in late July (51 to 41 percent).

皮尤研究爲奧巴馬得出了比其他民意調查明顯好幾個百分點的結果，但皮尤早期的結果反映的是所有已登記的選民。這項調查標誌着2012年皮尤研究第一次爲最有可能投票的小部分選民報告結果。在登記選民的一個較大樣本里，皮尤顯示奧巴馬有9個百分點的優勢（51％至42％），與七月下旬在登記選民中得出的幅度大致相同（51％至41％）。

One of the most striking aspects of the Pew Research survey, which may help explain why its results are more favorable to the president, is the surge of enthusiasm it captured among Democrats. All year, Pew Research surveys have found a roughly 10 point "engagement gap" between the percentages of Democrats and Republicans who say they have given a lot of thought to the election. But on this most recent survey, Pew writes, Democratic engagement "spiked" and the gap has largely disappeared. Moreover, Democratic voters are now as likely as Republicans to report following campaign news closely.

皮尤研究調查最引人注目的一面是在民主黨中贏得的一股熱情，這能幫助解釋爲什麼其結果更有利於總統。整整一年，皮尤研究調查發現了在民主黨人和共和黨人之間有大約10%的“參與代溝”，他們自稱對競選煞費苦心。但在這最近的一項調查中，皮尤寫道，民主參與的“刺”與代溝已經在很大程度上消失了。此外，現在民主黨選民就像共和黨人一樣密切報導競選新聞。

But the larger significance is this: The Obama campaign made boosting enthusiasm of voters, knowing that his victory in 2008 had depended on turning out many younger and non-white voters who cast their first ballots.

但更重要的意義在於此：奧巴馬的競選班子能激發選民的熱情，他們知道2008年的勝利取決於許多年輕人以及非白人選民投出了他們的第一張選票。

So as the election approaches, keep an eye on the enthusiasm gap.

因此，隨着競選臨近，關注兩黨的熱情差距。