脣槍舌劍激烈交鋒,首輪羅姆尼贏了奧巴馬

Mitt Romney raised Republican hopes of an election comeback with a spirited and aggressive performance that forced Barack Obama repeatedly on to the defensive in the first presidential debate.

通過一個振奮人心且鋒芒畢露的表現，羅姆尼燃起了共和黨選舉翻盤的希望，迫使美國總統奧巴馬在第一輪總統候選人辯論中不斷地防守。

Although Romney is still trailing badly in the polls, especially in the crucial swing states, his strong showing lifted conservative morale with more than four weeks left to turn the campaign around.

儘管羅姆尼在民意調查中仍嚴重落後，特別是在關鍵的搖擺州中。但他的強勢表現鼓舞了保守派的士氣，用還剩的四個多星期去扭轉競選形勢。

Romney and Obama sparred mainly over the economy, in particular tax, jobs and healthcare, during a statistic- and policy-laden 90-minute debate that was expected to draw an audience of more than 50 million.

羅姆尼和奧巴馬辯論的焦點主要是經濟政策，特別是稅收、就業和醫療保健，在這個數據和政策引用的90分鐘的辯論期間預計吸引了超過50萬的觀衆。

Romney was forceful from the start, accusing Obama of repeatedly portraying the Republican's policies as inaccurate, and he maintained that momentum throughout. Obama, looking tired and at times irritated, remained largely calm.

羅姆尼從一開始就攻勢凌厲，指責奧巴馬不準確的反覆描繪共和黨政策，而且他一直保持這一勢頭。奧巴馬看起來很累，有時很惱火，但大體上保持平靜。

In the spin room afterwards, Romney's campaign team hailed it as a victory. Eric Fehrnstrom, the campaign spokesman, could not contain his glee.

在之後的自旋屋裏，羅姆尼的競選團隊稱之爲勝利。大選發言人Eric Fehrnstrom毫不掩飾他的喜悅。

"Governor Romney clearly won," he said. "If this was a boxing match, the referee would have stopped it." He predicted the election would be close.

“州長羅姆尼顯然贏了，”他說。 “如果這是一場拳擊比賽，裁判本來可以叫停它。”他預計這場大選將咬得很緊。

A CNN flash poll of registered voters had 67% saying Romney had won it, while just 25% gave it to Obama.

CNN對登記選民的一個快速投票，有67％的人說羅姆尼贏得了，但只有25％的人認爲是奧巴馬贏了。

One of Bill Clinton's best-known strategists, James Carville, told CNN he had been left with "one overwhelming impression … It looked like Romney wanted to be there and President Obama didn't want to be there. It gave you the impression that this whole thing was a lot of trouble."

比爾•克林頓的最知名的戰略家之一詹姆斯•卡維爾，告訴CNN，他對此留下了“顛覆性的印象......這看起來像是羅姆尼想在總統那位置而美國總統奧巴馬卻不想在那，它給你的印象是這整件事就是一個大麻煩。”

Romney needed a good night after being confronted with setback after setback over the past two months that have left him behind Obama in the polls. While Obama remains favourite to secure re-election on 6 November, Romney may at least have stopped his gradual downward slide.

遭遇了過去兩個月在民調中一直落後奧巴馬的連續挫折後，羅姆尼需要一個美好的夜晚。雖然奧巴馬擁有的支持會確保11月6日的重新選舉，但羅姆尼至少有可能給他的總統連任來一個滑鐵盧。

Most debates have little impact on the eventual outcome but there have been exceptions, such as the one in 1960 and that between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000. While this one will not go down as a comparable game-changer, it will at least change the growing perception of Romney as a loser, even if only temporarily.

大多數辯論對最終結果影響不大，但也有例外，比如1960年的那場，以及艾伯特•戈爾和喬治•布什在2000年的辯論。雖然這一次不會作爲可相提並論的轉折繼續下去，但至少它會改變羅姆尼是一個失敗者的看法，即使只是暫時的。