奥巴马支持率优势扩大,领先罗姆尼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.

华盛顿消息：过去一周内多项民意调查显示了一系列结果，大都暗示了总统贝拉克•奥巴马与共和党候选人米特•罗姆尼之间旗鼓相当或优势不明显。然而，从皮尤研究中心的一项新调查给了奥巴马最大的领先优势。

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。

皮尤研究调查显示，从9月12号至16日在对2192位潜在选民的调查中奥巴马领先了罗姆尼8个百分点（51%比43％）。这个结果比最近的其他民调对总统更有利。

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.

这一刻，基于所有可用的民意调查的赫芬顿邮报民调跟踪模型显示，全国范围内奥巴马领先了超过2个百分点。

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).

皮尤研究为奥巴马得出了比其他民意调查明显好几个百分点的结果，但皮尤早期的结果反映的是所有已登记的选民。这项调查标志着2012年皮尤研究第一次为最有可能投票的小部分选民报告结果。在登记选民的一个较大样本里，皮尤显示奥巴马有9个百分点的优势（51％至42％），与七月下旬在登记选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.

皮尤研究调查最引人注目的一面是在民主党中赢得的一股热情，这能帮助解释为什么其结果更有利于总统。整整一年，皮尤研究调查发现了在民主党人和共和党人之间有大约10%的“参与代沟”，他们自称对竞选煞费苦心。但在这最近的一项调查中，皮尤写道，民主参与的“刺”与代沟已经在很大程度上消失了。此外，现在民主党选民就像共和党人一样密切报导竞选新闻。

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.

但更重要的意义在于此：奥巴马的竞选班子能激发选民的热情，他们知道2008年的胜利取决于许多年轻人以及非白人选民投出了他们的第一张选票。

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

因此，随着竞选临近，关注两党的热情差距。