美六成民众对奥巴马缺乏信心

Nearly 60 percent of American voters say they lack faith in President Barack Obama, according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday.

The results of the Washington Post/ABC News poll are a reversal of what voters said at the start of Obama's presidency 18 months ago when about 60 percent expressed confidence in his decision making.

Confidence in Obama is at a new low but the poll found that his numbers are still higher than lawmakers of either major party four months ahead of the November congressional elections.

Asked how much confidence they have in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, 58 percent of respondents said "just some" or "none."

Sixty-eight percent expressed the same sentiments about Democrats in Congress and 72 percent said the same of Republicans.

The Post said problems in the housing industry, sluggish job growth and other economic issues may have taken a toll on Obama's approval rating.

Just 43 percent of all Americans, including a third of Democrats, now say they approve of the job Obama is doing on the economy, while 54 percent disapprove.

The survey also found wide anti-incumbent sentiment with 62 percent of voters saying they were not inclined to support their current representative.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in the November 2 election as well as 36 of the 100 Senate seats.

Democrats now control both houses of Congress, but a slight majority of those polled said they would prefer to have Republicans in control to serve as a check on Obama's policies.

The poll of 1,288 people was conducted July 7-11 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

本周二公布的一项民调显示，近60%的美国选民对总统贝拉克．奥巴马缺乏信心。

该调查由《华盛顿邮报》和美国广播公司新闻部联合开展，调查结果与18个月前奥巴马执政伊始的情况截然相反，当时约60%的选民表示对奥巴马的决策能力很有信心。

尽管美国民众对奥巴马的信心降至新低，但调查显示，选民对两大政党中议员的信心指数更低。美国将在4个月后，即11月份举行国会选举。

在被问及对奥巴马政策制定、治理国家的能力有多大信心时，58%的受访者回答“只有一点”，或“没有信心”。

68%的受访者对国会中的民主党议员持有同感，72%的受访者对共和党议员缺乏信心。

据《华盛顿邮报》报道，房地产业问题多多、就业市场不景气以及其它经济问题可能是导致奥巴马支持率下降的主要原因。

仅有43%的美国民众对奥巴马目前的经济政策表示认可，其中包括三分之一的民主党人；而54%的民众则表示不满意。

调查还发现，选民对现任的“朝中大臣”们存在普遍不满，62%的选民称他们不打算支持现任的党派代表。

美国将于11月2日举行国会选举，届时选民将对众议院的全部435个席位和参议院100个席位中的36个席位进行选举。

目前民主党占国会参众两院的多数席位，但稍占多数的受访者表示，他们希望共和党能控制国会，以为奥巴马的政策制定把关。

这项调查于7月7日至11日之间开展，共对1288名受访者进行了访问，抽样误差率为正负3.5个百分点。

Vocabulary:

take a toll: be damaging or harmful, cause loss or destruction（产生负面影响，造成重大损失）

incumbent: holding an indicated position, role, office, etc., currently（在职的，现任的）

up for grabs: available to anyone willing to expend the energy to get it（提供的，可供争夺的）