Barack Obama Breaks Fundraising Records
奥巴马总统竞选筹款打破记录

　
Barack Obama's presidential campaign raised a record of $150 million in September, giving him a significant cash advantage over his opponent John McCain. The Democratic nominee is using his treasure chest to purchase television and radio ads in closely contested states, and also in traditional Republican strongholds such as Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia and even West Virginia.

奥巴马总统竞选班子9月份筹集到创记录的1亿5千万美元， 从而使他比对手麦凯恩享有巨额竞选资金的优势。这位民主党总统候选人利用自己充足的钱包在那些竞争激烈的州，以及传统的共和党的据点，如印第安纳州、内华达州、北卡罗莱纳州、弗吉尼亚州和西弗吉尼亚州等购买电视和电台广告。

Barack Obama became the first major party candidate not to join the public financing system for the general election campaign, backing away from an earlier pledge that he would do so. This frees the Democratic candidate to raise an unlimited amount from private donations.

奥巴马成为美国在参加竞选活动中第一位不接受公共资金体制的主要政党候选人。他背弃了先前做出的不会这样做的承诺。此举可以放手让这位民主党候选人从私人捐赠中筹集不受限制的竞选资金。

Republican candidate John McCain chose to take public funds, and is now limited to spending the $84 million he received from the public financing system during the final two months of the campaign.

而共和党总统候选人约翰.麦凯恩则选择接受公共资金，现在麦凯恩在最后两个月的竞选活动中，只能花费来自公共财政系统的8千4百万美元的竞选经费限额。

The Obama campaign has raised an unprecedented total of more than $600 million during the campaign, almost equaling the combined amount both major candidates, George Bush and John Kerry, raised in the 2004 presidential election.

奥巴马在竞选活动中筹集到前所未有的6亿美元竞选经费，几乎相当于2004年总统大选中美国总统布什和克里参议员等两位候选人竞选金额的总和。

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Senator McCain said this kind of runaway campaign spending is cause for concern.

参议员麦凯恩在接受福克斯电视台“周日新闻”节目采访的时候说，竞选开支的失控引起人们的关注。

"But what I worry about is future elections too. Not only mine, I worry most about mine at the moment, but what is going to happen the next time around?" McCain noted. "Four years from now, what is going to happen? Particularly if you have got an incumbent president and we no longer stick to the public financing, which was a result of the Watergate scandal."

麦凯恩说：“我还担心未来的选举。不仅是我自己。当然此刻我最担心的是我的竞选活动。但是下一次将要发生什么事？从现在开始的四年之后会发生什么情况？特别是如果你有一个现任总统，同时我们也不再坚持使用公共资金作为竞选经费，那样的话就会发生水门事件那样的丑闻。”

McCain also criticized Obama for not living up to his pledge to accept public funds.

麦凯恩还批评奥巴马违背自己接受公共资金作为竞选经费的承诺。

The Obama campaign argues that it has developed what amounts to a parallel financing system of its own, with more than three-million individual donors contributing to his campaign, many of them donating small sums over the Internet. The campaign says the average donation for September was less than $100.

奥巴马竞选班子解释说，他们已经开发出了一个相当于自身平行筹款体系，其中有超过3百万个人捐助者为奥巴马的竞选捐款，许多是通过互联网的小额捐款。奥巴马的竞选班子说，9月份为奥巴马捐款的平均数额不到100美元。

Obama's financial advantage is making it possible for him to drown McCain's message in a flood of TV, web and radio ads. Obama is even advertising in video games.

奥巴马的资金优势是使他能够用排山倒海般的电视、网络和广播电台的广告信息，甚至在视频游戏中插播广告，来压倒麦凯恩的信息。

Evan Tracey is president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a private firm that provides political advertising information to its clients. Tracey said he has never seen anything like Obama's success and corresponding dominance of the airwaves.

特雷西是总统竞选媒体分析集团的主任。这是一家向客户提供政治广告信息的私营公司。特雷西说，他从未见过像奥巴马这样成功地在电波里占有相应的压倒优势。

"For the casual viewer, for the person who is just kind of tuning into this race knowing that they are going to be voting in a couple of weeks, all they are seeing in a lot of these battleground states are Obama ads on TV, all they are hearing are Obama ads on radio," Tracey noted. "It just really gives Obama the advantage of somewhat blanketing the paid media, the advertising aspect of this race, and it just makes it that much harder for Senator McCain to have a message that is able to cut through."

特雷西说：“对于一个偶尔接触媒体的人来说，如果他刚刚开始关注选举，并且知道自己再过几个星期就要参加投票，他们所能够看到的就是奥巴马在很多激烈争夺的州的电视广告，他们所能听到的是奥巴马在电台作的竞选广告。这真的让奥巴马在覆盖付费媒体方面，在竞选广告方面享有优势。这使得麦凯恩的信息很难抵达选民。”

One of John McCain's television ads questions "Who is Barack Obama?", and uses it to counter some of Obama's ads against him.

A recent Obama TV ad says McCain is attacking him to distract voters' attention away from the economic crisis.

最近的一个奥巴马竞选电视广告说，麦凯恩通过攻击他转移选民对经济危机的注意力。

The candidates also use their campaign money to open offices in hotly contested states and to conduct grassroots voter registration and voter turnout efforts with paid field workers. Obama has also purchased 30 minutes of prime time on network television to address American voters in the week before the election.

两位总统候选人还利用他们的竞选资金在竞争激烈的州开设办事处，并支付工资给办事人员开展基层选民登记，以及动员更多选民参加投票。奥巴马还购买了美国电视网30分钟的电视黄金时间段，在投票即将举行的一周前向美国选民发表讲话。