Lexington
莱克星顿
Joebama
乔巴马
Aug 28th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Joe Biden brings both strengths and weaknesses to the Democratic ticket
对民主党的选情而言，乔拜登的加入可谓喜忧参半
HIS first run for the presidency collapsed, in 1987, after a bizarre act of plagiarism. Bizarre because Joe Biden not only borrowed the words of another politician, Neil Kinnock, the leader of the British Labour Party. That is par for the course in modern politics. He borrowed his life-story, too. He claimed that he was the first Biden to go to university and that his ancestors had worked down a coal mine, both untrue. The only thing he did not claim was to be Welsh.
在一次非常诡异的剽窃事件之后，乔拜登的第一次总统竞选失败了。之所以说件事很诡异并不是因为乔拜登借用了另一位政治领袖，英国工党领导人尼尔金诺克的词句。这在现代政治中很常见。而是因为他还将别人的人生经历移花接木到自己身上。他声称他是拜登家族中第一个大学生，他的先祖曾在矿井下工作。这两点都是假的。只有一点他没有借用，那就是他还是个威尔士人。
This was doubly damaging because Mr Biden, like the man whose identity he tried to purloin, is a notorious wind-bag. He loves nothing more than the sound of his own voice. And when he talks the sentences and paragraphs tumble over each other with no obvious end in sight. Members of the audience just have to cross their fingers and hope.
另外，正如他”嫁接”在自己身上的那位政客一样，乔拜登是个出了名的”话痨”，对于他本就狼藉的声名而言，这无疑是雪上加霜。他好像最爱听自己的声音。每当他喋喋不休地唠叨一些彼此矛盾的句子与段落的时候，听众们只能双手合十，祈求老天让他快点闭嘴了。
But Barack Obama’s choice of Mr Biden as his running mate has nevertheless been greeted with widespread applause-and not just from loyal Democrats. The senior senator for Delaware not only brings white hair to the Democratic ticket. He also brings a (true) personal story that compliments Mr Obama’s autobiography. Mr Obama’s rally in Springfield, Illinois, on August 23rd, where he introduced his new running mate to the world, was his best performance for some time.
但是此次奥巴马选择拜登作为他的竞选伙伴，仍然受到广泛的认同-这种认同不仅仅是来自忠实的民主党人。这位特拉华州的资深参议员不仅给民主党候选组合带来了经验。他同样给奥巴马带来了一段能够为他的自传增光添彩的故事。8月23日在伊利诺伊州斯普林菲尔德的集会上，奥巴马向世界介绍了他的竞选伙伴，而这是他在近一段时间以来最好的表现。
Mr Biden is a perfect example of a lunch-bucket Democrat made good. His father was born polo-playing rich but ended up poor, thanks to a series of bad investments. Young Joe grew up in a solid but struggling working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, before moving to Wilmington, Delaware. He worked his way through college and made it to the Senate by the age of 29.
拜登是民主党人蓝领阶级凭借自身努力最终成才的绝佳范例。他的父亲出身富裕，但因为一系列的投资失败，晚年穷困潦倒。年轻的乔出生于宾西法尼亚州斯克兰顿一个比较殷实但仍需努力奋斗的工人阶级家庭，这家人后来搬到了特拉华州的威尔明。进入大学接受高等教育，为他的人生铺设了一条坦途，29岁那年他进入参议院。
He remains popular in his native Pennsylvania, one of America’s largest swing states. He is a (pro-choice) Roman Catholic who instinctively understands the cultural anxieties that drove his fellow Papists to embrace Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and continue to make them wary of Mr Obama. He is also one of the poorest members of the Senate, an institution which is threatening to revert to its Gilded Age status as a millionaires’ club. He endured an unspeakable personal tragedy, shortly after his first run for the Senate in 1972, when his wife and daughter were killed by a drunk driver. He travels home to his family in Delaware every day on Amtrak, and lives in a surprisingly modest house. All this makes him appealing to Obama-wary working-class voters.
宾西法尼亚是美国最大的摇摆州，乔拜登在他的家乡依然非常受欢迎。他出生即是罗马天主教徒，能够直觉地感受到教友们的文化焦虑。正是这种焦虑让他们在80年代选择了罗纳德里根，而且直到现在对奥巴马仍然心有顾虑。在参议院这个越来越贵族化，富翁化的机构当中，他是最穷的人之一。1972年刚刚竞选参议员不久，他就经历了一场无言的人生悲剧，他的妻子和女儿被一个醉酒司机开车撞死。直到现在他仍然每天搭乘美铁，回他在特拉华的家-一座极其俭朴的房子。对那些对奥巴马心存怀疑的蓝领选民而言，上述种种使他们对乔拜登颇有好感。
Mr Biden is one of the most experienced foreign-policy hands in Washington. He has been the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2007, with a particular interest in eastern Europe, and is on first-name terms with many foreign politicians. A fortnight ago Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, invited him to visit his embattled country. He is also “a happy warrior”-a man who relishes the pig-wrestling side of politics, and can deliver a killer punch without seeming malicious.
拜登是华盛顿最有资历的外交老手。自从民主党在2007年掌控国会以来，他一直担任参议院对外关系委员会主席，对东欧问题尤其有兴趣。他与许多外国政治家过从甚密。两周前格鲁吉亚总统米哈伊尔萨卡什维利还曾邀请拜登访问他那处于战争中的国家。他可谓”痴迷政坛的勇士”— -他是那种能够享受权利角逐钩心斗角，并于谈笑间将对手置于死地的家伙。
This is a perfect compliment to Mr Obama’s biggest weaknesses, his wafer-thin résumé on foreign affairs. It will stand him in good stead in the vice-presidential debate, which could prove surprisingly important in a close race. The fact that he is a good friend of John McCain-the two men have served together in the Senate for two decades-could also help the Democrats to wrong-foot their opponent.
作为竞选搭档，乔拜登丰富的外交经验无疑完美地弥补了奥巴马竞选的最大劣势— 严重缺乏外交经验。这也将使得乔拜登在副总统辩论中更胜一筹，对于这场势均力敌的驴象之争而言，这可谓意义重大。此外，乔拜登与麦凯恩在参议院共事二十载，他们之间无疑有利于民主党打乱对手的阵脚。
Mr Biden’s strengths extend beyond the campaign trail. Dick Cheney is hardly a name to conjure with in Democratic circles. But Mr Biden brings some of the same qualities to the Democratic ticket that Mr Cheney brought to the Republican one in 2000. At 65, he has no choice but to sublimate his personal political ambitions into those of his boss; and, as an old Washington hand, he knows how to get things done. Mr Obama’s supporters seem to believe that all they need to do is huff and puff and the old order in Washington will come tumbling down. Mr Biden understands that, in order to achieve results, you need to know how to manage committees and flatter power-brokers.
拜登的能力还不仅限于竞选活动。他可以说是民主党内的迪克切尼，为民主党候选人带来一些切尼在2000年曾为共和党带来的的品质。他现年65岁，知道要想实现自己的政治野心必须要依附自己的总统上司；并且，作为一个华盛顿老手，他知道如何解决事情。奥巴马的支持者想当然的以为只要他们威胁恫吓一番，华盛顿的旧秩序就能土崩瓦解。而拜登明白，如果要想办成什么事，你就必须学会如何应对各种各样的委员会和安抚一位又一位政治掮客。
Mouth trouble
大嘴巴
The Republicans have wasted no time in charging that Mr Biden undercuts his boss’s message of “change”. But this is transparently self-serving. If Mr Obama had picked a less experienced man-Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia, another swing state, for example-they would be mocking the Democratic ticket as lightweight. Still, the man who tried to borrow Mr Kinnock’s biography has worrying weaknesses.
共和党方面很快就站出来，指责说拜登削弱了他的老板”变革”的口号。这显然是为了自身利益睁着眼睛说瞎话。如果奥巴马选择了一个缺乏经验的人-比如说另一个摇摆州弗吉尼亚的州长汤姆凯恩-他们又会说这对候选人组合份量不够。但是，这位借用金诺克自传的人还是有他让人担忧的缺陷。
The most obvious, of course, is his mouth. The Republicans have already produced a video of Mr Biden arguing that Mr Obama is too inexperienced for the top job, and proclaiming that he would “be honoured to run with or against” Mr McCain. Mr Biden once described Mr Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”. There will be plenty more where that came from.
最易被人诟病的自然是他的口不择言。共和党已经制作了一段视频，上面拜登指责奥巴马太没经验，不能胜任最高职务，还说他”很荣幸能够协助或对抗”麦凯恩。拜登曾经这样描述奥巴马-“第一个口齿伶俐，阳光，整洁，长得不错的主流非裔美国人”。这样的话数不胜数。
A second problem is that his judgment in his major area of expertise, foreign policy, has proved up and down. He argued that Iraq should be partitioned, into Sunni, Shia and Kurdish regions, and stuck to his harebrained scheme long after it had been debunked both by American military commanders and by Iraqi politicians. Like Mr Obama, he bet against the success of the “surge”. All grist to the Republican mill.
第二个问题是他在自己的主要领域，即外交政策方面的判断力水准不一。他曾经要求把伊拉克分割成逊尼，什叶，库尔德三部分，并且在被美国军方将领和伊拉克政治家揭穿以后仍然顽固不化。和奥巴马一样，他同样不承认”速增”计划的成功。这一切都正中共和党下怀。
Mr Biden’s biggest problem, however, is that he is not Hillary Clinton. Mrs Clinton won 18m votes in the Democratic primary; Mr Biden dropped out after coming fifth in the Iowa caucuses. Mr Obama’s advisers have whispered that the reason Mrs Clinton was not considered for the vice-presidency is that she is a Washington insider who voted in favour of the Iraq war. But Mr Biden is also a Washington insider who voted in favour of the Iraq war. Far from bringing Mrs Clinton’s supporters back into the fold, Mr Biden’s elevation may look like just another snub.
然而，乔拜登最大的问题是他不是希拉里克林顿。希拉里在民主党内初选中赢得了1800万张选票；而拜登在第五场初选，即爱荷华州初选之后就宣布退出。奥巴马的顾问声称之所以不考虑提名希拉里作副总统是因为她是知情但仍然支持伊战的政府中人。但拜登同样也是知情但仍然支持伊战的政府中人。提名拜登不仅没有赢回希拉里支持者们的心，反而看起来更像是对他们的一种怠慢。
译者：xsj191 http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13707&extra=page%3D1