Lexington
莱克星顿
The woman from nowhere
横空出世的女士
Sep 4th 2008
From The Economist print edition
John McCain’s choice of running-mate raises serious questions about his judgment
麦凯恩选择的竞选搭档，让人们对他的判断力心存疑虑
THE most audacious move of the race so far is also, potentially, the most self-destructive. John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running-mate has set the political atmosphere alight with both enthusiasm and dismay.
美国大选到目前为止最大胆的举动很有可能造成自我毁灭。约翰麦凯恩选择萨拉佩琳作为自己的竞选伙伴让政界既激动又沮丧。
Mr McCain has based his campaign on the idea that this is a dangerous world-and that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to deal with it. He has also acknowledged that his advanced age-he celebrated his 72nd birthday on August 29th-makes his choice of vice-president unusually important. Now he has chosen as his running mate, on the basis of the most cursory vetting, a first-term governor of Alaska.
麦凯恩的竞选基于这样一个观念：我们身处一个非常危险的世界，而巴拉克奥巴马太缺乏经验，还不能很好的应对它。他同时也承认自己的高龄-8月29日他度过了自己72岁的生日-使得副总统的选择至关重要。但现在仅仅通过非常草率的调查，他就确定了自己的竞选伙伴：还在第一届任期内的阿拉斯加州长。
The reaction from inside the conservative cocoon was at first ecstatic. Conservatives argued that Mrs Palin embodies the “real America”-a moose-hunting hockey mum, married to an oil-worker, who has risen from the local parent-teacher association to governing the geographically largest state in the Union. They praise her as a McCain-style reformer who has taken on her state’s Republican establishment and has a staunch pro-life record (her fifth child has Down’s syndrome). Who better to harpoon the baby-murdering elitists who run the Democratic Party?
保守派内部的第一反应是狂喜。保守人士宣称佩琳象征着”真正的美国人”-一位辛苦的冰球妈妈，与一个石油工人成家，从当地家长教师会成员起步，成为美国面积最大的州的州长。他们称赞她是麦凯恩式的改革者：曾经反对过州内的共和党当权派，还有着可靠的反堕胎纪录（她的第五个孩子患有唐氏综合症）。还有谁能比她更适合于攻击那些谋杀婴儿的民主党精英大佬呢？
Mrs Palin was greeted like the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan by the delegates, furious at her mauling at the hands of the “liberal media”. And she delivered a tub-thumping speech, underlining her record as a reforming governor and advocate of more oil-drilling, and warning her enemies not to underestimate her (“the difference between a hockey mum and a pitbull-lipstick”). But once the cheering and the chanting had died down, serious questions remained.
代表们热烈欢迎佩琳的到来，就如同他们再次见到罗纳德里根一样。对于佩琳受到”自由媒体”攻击一事，他们非常愤怒。佩琳发表了一场慷慨激昂的演讲，强调她作为州长一直支持改革，赞成进一步的石油开采，警告对手不要低估她的实力（”冰球妈妈与比特犬的区别仅仅是唇膏而已”）。虽然如此，一旦欢呼与掌声落下，一些严重的问题就显露了出来。
The political calculations behind Mr McCain’s choice hardly look robust. Mrs Palin is not quite the pork-busting reformer that her supporters claim. She may have become famous as the governor who finally killed the infamous “bridge to nowhere”-the $220m bridge to the sparsely inhabited island of Gravina, Alaska. But she was in favour of the bridge before she was against it (and told local residents that they weren’t “nowhere to her”). As mayor of Wasilla, a metropolis of 9,000 people, she initiated annual trips to Washington, DC, to ask for more earmarks from the state’s congressional delegation, and employed Washington lobbyists to press for more funds for her town.
这一选择背后的政治考虑看起来并不周密。佩琳并不像她的支持者宣称的那样，是一个强硬的改革派。她的成名也许是因为作为州长，她否决了臭名昭著的”没必要的桥”-这一提案要求花费2亿2千万美元建造一座通往人烟稀少的格拉维纳岛的桥（当然她对当地居民说，他们并不是”可有可无”）。她当有九千居民的州内主要城市瓦西拉的市长时，每年都到华盛顿向国会代表申请专项经费，还雇佣华盛顿游说人士为他们城市争取更多资金。
Nor is Mrs Palin well placed to win over the moderate and independent voters who hold the keys to the White House. Mr McCain’s main political problem is not energising his base; he enjoys more support among Republicans than Mr Obama does among Democrats. His problem is reaching out to swing voters at a time when the number of self-identified Republicans is up to ten points lower than the number of self-identified Democrats. Mr McCain needs to attract roughly 55% of independents and 15% of Democrats to win the election. But it is hard to see how a woman who supports the teaching of creationism rather than contraception, and who is soon to become a 44-year-old grandmother, helps him with soccer moms in the Philadelphia suburbs. A Rasmussen poll found that the Palin pick made 31% of undecided voters less likely to plump for Mr McCain and only 6% more likely.
佩琳也不会为共和党在通向白宫的道路上赢得极为关键的中间独立选民的选票。麦凯恩的主要政治难题并不是要夯实自己的根基；他在共和党内的支持率要比奥巴马在民主党内的支持率高。他的问题是：在一个共和党人人数与民主党人人数少十个百分点还多的情况下，他必须要赢得中间选民的支持。麦凯恩要想获胜，必须得到 55%的独立选票和15%的民主党选票。但佩琳,一个宣扬上帝创世论而非主张节育避孕措施的，年界44岁就要荣升未祖母的人，自然无法笼络费城郊外那些中产阶级妇女的芳心，当然更别奢望帮助麦凯恩收获这些足球妈妈的选票了。拉斯姆森民调显示选择佩琳作为竞选伙伴，让31%的未决定选民倾向于支持奥巴马，只有6%的人因为这一动作而选择支持他。
The moose in the room, of course, is her lack of experience. When Geraldine Ferraro was picked as Walter Mondale’s running-mate, she had served in the House for three terms. Even the hapless Dan Quayle, George Bush senior’s sidekick, had served in the House and Senate for 12 years. Mrs Palin, who has been the governor of a state with a population of 670,000 for less than two years, is the most inexperienced candidate for a mainstream party in modern history.
显然他们还面临一个严重问题，那就是她缺乏经验。当杰拉尔丁费拉罗被沃尔特•蒙代尔选为竞选伙伴时，她已经在众议院供职三个任期。即使是老布什的竞选伙伴，倒霉的丹奎尔，当时也已经在两院服务了12年。而佩琳当选成为一个有着67000人口的州的州长还不到两年。她是现代历史上主流党派中最缺乏经验的候选人。
Inexperienced and Bush-level incurious. She has no record of interest in foreign policy, let alone expertise. She once told an Alaskan magazine: “I’ve been so focused on state government; I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.” She obtained an American passport only last summer to visit Alaskan troops in Germany and Kuwait. This not only blunts Mr McCain’s most powerful criticism of Mr Obama. It also raises serious questions about the way he makes decisions.
由于没经验和与布什类似的漠不关心，佩琳在外交政策方面也没什么历练，更不用说什么专业素养。她曾经对一家阿拉斯加杂志说：”我太关注州内事务，都没怎么关心过伊战。”她在去年夏天才拿到美国护照，这也只是为了访问驻扎在德国和科威特的阿拉斯加军队。以上问题不仅让麦凯恩对奥巴马的种种批评听起来像是在搬起石头砸自己的脚，更让人质疑他到底当初是怎么做出这个决定的。
Vetted for 15 minutes
15分钟的匆忙考核
Mr McCain had met Mrs Palin only once, for a 15-minute chat at the National Governors’ Association meeting, before summoning her to his ranch for her final interview. The New York Times claims that his team arrived in Alaska only on August 28th, a day before the announcement. As a result, his advisers seem to have been gobsmacked by the Palin show that is now playing on the national stage. She has links to the wacky Alaska Independence Party, which wants to secede from the Union. She is on record disagreeing with Mr McCain on global warming, among other issues. The contrast with Mr Obama’s choice of the highly experienced and much-vetted Joe Biden is striking.
在对佩琳进行最后面试之前，麦凯恩只在全国州长大会中见过佩琳一次，只聊过15分钟。纽约时报说他的团队只是在宣布竞选伙伴的前一天，即8月28日才到达阿拉斯加。因此，他的顾问们都对佩琳现在能够站在全国性舞台感到大吃一惊。她与古怪的阿拉斯加独立党派联系密切，而后者现在想退出联盟。另外，纪录显示，她与麦凯恩在全球变暖方面的观点不一致，而这只是两人的异见之一。奥巴马通过大量调查才最终选择极富经验的乔拜登。麦凯恩的选择相形见绌。
Mr McCain’s appointment also raises more general worries about the Republican Party’s fitness for government. Up until the middle of last week Mr McCain was still considering two other candidates whom he has known for decades: Joe Lieberman, a veteran senator, independent Democrat and Iraq war hawk, and Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania (a swing state with 21 Electoral College votes) and the first secretary of homeland security. Mr McCain reluctantly rejected both men because their pro-choice views are anathema to the Christian right.
因为这一选择，民众更加质疑共和党到底能不能管理好政府。上周中段以前他仍然在考虑其他两位相识数十年的候选人：乔利伯曼，退伍军人参议员，独立民主党人和伊战鹰派；汤姆里奇，宾西法尼亚州前州长（有21 张选举团选票的摇摆州）和第一任美国本土安全办公室主任。麦凯恩最终极不情愿地否决了这两人，因为他们支持人工流产的观点对天主教右派来说不可接受。
The Palin appointment is yet more proof of the way that abortion still distorts American politics. This is as true on the left as on the right. But the Republicans seem to have gone furthest in subordinating considerations of competence and merit to pro-life purity. One of the biggest problems with the Bush administration is that it appointed so many incompetents because they were sound on Roe v Wade. Mrs Palin’s elevation suggests that, far from breaking with Mr Bush, Mr McCain is repeating his mistakes.
选择佩琳也证明堕胎问题仍然扭曲着美国政治，左右两派都是如此。共和党现在就显得过分强调反对堕胎，全然不为自身的竞争性和其他优点考虑。布什政府最大的一个问题就是他任命了与许多不称职的官员，仅仅因为他们对罗伊诉韦德案的立场坚定。启用佩琳女士也表明: 麦凯恩未能够吸取布什政策失误的教训，并予以切割，而是在重蹈其覆辙。
译者：xsj191 http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13792&extra=page%3D1
堕胎有这么重要啊？