CNN News:美国总统大选倒计时8周 带你了解竞选总统全过程

We are less than eight weeks away from Election Day in the U.S. and ten days away from the first presidential debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Several recent national polls are close. They indicate that neither major candidate appears to have a strong advantage. Looking at Ohio and Florida, two critical battleground states, also known as swing states, these are states whose voters could choose either a Republican or a Democratic candidate. They don't tend to vote the same way in every election.
In Ohio, a recent cnn/ORC poll found that Donald Trump had the lead among likely voters with the support of 46 percent. Hillary Clinton had the support of 41 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson had 8 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein had 2 percent.
In Florida, the same poll found that Trump had the support of 47 percent. Clinton had the support of 44 percent. Johnson had 6 percent. And Stein had 1 percent. The poll's margin of error is 3.5 percent.
Now, there had been questions about the candidates' stances on policies. There had been questions about their health, about how open their campaigns have been with information. One thing there's no question about is that running takes a massive effort.
现在距离美国总统大选日还有不到8周的时间，距离民主党总统候选人希拉里·克林顿和共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普之间的首场大选辩论还有10天。
近期进行了多项全美民意调查。民调结果表明，没有一名主要候选人拥有绝对优势。俄亥俄州和佛罗里达州是两个关键的战场州，同时也是摇摆州，这两个州的选民既可能给共和党总统候选人投票，也可能给民主党总统候选人投票。摇摆州的选民在每次选举中的支持对象都不同。
俄亥俄州近期进行的cnn/ORC民调显示，唐纳德·特朗普在可能选民中的支持率领先，他的支持率为46%。希拉里·克林顿的支持率为41%。自由党总统候选人加里·约翰逊的支持率为8%，绿党总统候选人吉尔·斯坦的支持率是2%。
佛罗里达州的cnn/ORC民调显示，特朗普的支持率是47%。克林顿的支持率是44%。约翰逊的支持率是6%。斯坦只有1%的支持率。民调的误差幅度为3.5%。
现在，问题是总统候选人的政治立场。还有他们的健康状况、他们竞选团队信息的公开度。而有一件事是确定的，那就是竞选总统需要付出巨大的努力。

PAUL STEINHAUSER, cnn CORRESPONDENT: Running for the White House is unlike any other contest. This is the ultimate prize and it's definitely the major leagues when it comes to campaigning.
SUBTITLE: Explain to Me: Running for President.
STEINHAUSER: Everybody thinks the election is in November, but, honestly, that election starts often two years beforehand.
Going to the early voting states, meeting voters, starting to build up a staff. This is a commitment that takes a lot more than just a few weeks.
Running for the White House is no cheap proposition. It takes a lot of money. This time around, we will see maybe a billion-dollar campaign.
Why does it cost so much money to run for the White House? Because it's more than just a state operation. You're running in all 50 states. And it takes a lot of money, not only to build up a staff to reach out to voters, but also the travel, the commercials. We're talking about an immense amount of money.
You don't always be rich to run for the White House. You can have ideas, and if you start generating buzz, well, then the money follows, especially nowadays with the Internet. It is so much easier now to reach out to anybody to raise money than it was in the old days.
To have a successful campaign, you need a pretty large staff, no doubt about it. You have to have people in the early voting states, like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada. People who are reaching out to voters, people who are setting up events for the candidate.
When it comes to a campaign staff, candidates often like to have young people and old people as well. It's definitely a mixture. Their top strategies are often people who've been around for cycles. But a lot of the younger people out in the states, the volunteers and the fresh faces, those are the people who are knocking on doors and saying hello to voters and trying to spread the message about their candidates.
There are a lot of positions in a campaign, but there are a few people that stand out the most. And one of them will be the campaign manager. That's the person who manages a campaign, basically the boss who decides who does what and where the candidate goes and what the candidate says, to a degree.
cnn记者保罗·斯登豪瑟：竞选白宫掌门人不同于其他任何竞选活动。这是终极大奖，在竞选活动方面绝对是重大比赛。
副标题：请解释一下总统竞选。
斯登豪瑟：所有人都认为美国总统大选将在今年11月举行，但其实，竞选活动早在两年前就开始了。
去提前投票州，和选民见面，建立竞选团队。这花费的时间可远远不止几个星期而已。
竞选白宫掌门人可不是花费少的任务。竞选活动需要花费大量资金。目前来看，竞选活动需要的资金可能高达10亿美元。
为什么竞选白宫掌门人会花费这么多钱？因为不仅仅要在一个州进行竞选活动。总统候选人要走遍50个州。所以需要大量资金，不仅仅是建立竞选团队去和选民接触，还要去各个州开展竞选活动，投放电视广告。我们这里说的是一大笔钱。
不是富有的人才能竞选白宫掌门人。你可以靠想法吸引资金，在你引发关注以后，就会有资金注入，尤其现在是网络时代。与以前相比，现在联系他人筹集资金要简单得多。
要想成功进行竞选活动，就需要一支庞大的竞选团队，这是毋庸置疑的。需要在爱荷华州、新罕布什尔州、南卡罗来纳州、佛罗里达州和内华达州等提前投票州安排人手。要有人在这些州接触选民，为总统候选人安排竞选活动。
在挑选竞选团队成员时，总统候选人通常喜欢年轻人和年长一些的人。团队当然要由不同年龄层组成。他们的最高战略是纳入在选举活动方面经验丰富的成员。但是团队中也会有很多年轻人，比如志愿者和新面孔，他们要在各州去挨家挨户地敲门，问候选民，努力传递他们所代表的总统候选人的信息。
竞选团队中有很多职务，但是只有很少的人能脱颖而出。其中一名成员将成为竞选经理。这个人的工作是管理竞选活动，从某种程度上说，竞选经理要决定每名成员的职责，总统候选人举行竞选活动的地点、候选人的讲话内容等。