双语时事：奥巴马不是＂帝王总统＂

　　　　If you needed confirmation that American liberals and conservatives inhabit parallel universes, just consider the reaction to last week’s deal on the fiscal cliff. Conservatives saw a ruthless Barack Obama, ramming through his agenda. Liberals lamented a limp surrender by the president.　
　　　　美国的自由派和保守派生活在两个相互平行的宇宙里。如果你不相信这一点，请想一想两派人士对上周达成的财政悬崖协议分别是何反应。保守派认为，巴拉克 奥巴马(Barack Obama)冷酷无情，只顾推动自己的议题获得通过；而自由派则悲哀地说，总统没有坚守自己的立场，向保守派缴械投降了。　
　　　　But these two very different lines of attack on Mr Obama have something important in common. Both liberals and conservatives remain addicted to the myth of the imperial president. They expect the occupant of the White House to be a towering figure – a Lincoln, a Roosevelt, a Johnson – who dominates politics and shapes history.　
　　　　自由派和保守派对奥巴马的批评虽然理由迥异，但却有一个重要的共同点。他们都仍沉迷于“帝王式总统”的幻想。他们希望白宫的主人是一个伟人，像当年的林肯、罗斯福和约翰逊那样，能够主导政局、并决定历史。　
　　　　In reality Mr Obama is a prisoner of circumstances. He cannot pass laws or get a budget through without the consent of a House of Representatives that is controlled by his bitter ideological and political foes. No president – however brilliant, determined or wise – could create rational and effective policies from such circumstances.　
　　　　在现实世界中，奥巴马是受困于诸多客观条件的“囚徒”。只要众议院不点头，他无法批准任何法案或预算案。而在众议院占主导地位的是保守派，他们在意识形态和政治立场上都与奥巴马相去甚远。在这种情况下，没有哪一位总统能够制定出既合理又有效的政策，无论这位总统是多么杰出、坚定或者英明。　
　　　　Many liberals dreamt that Mr Obama would be set free by re-election. Without the burden of running for office, he would be the president of Hollywood dreams: speaking out boldly, vanquishing the bad guys.　
　　　　许多自由派曾幻想，再次当选总统能够为奥巴马“松绑”。卸下了竞选连任的包袱，奥巴马将成为好莱坞电影中的完美总统：大胆直言、惩处恶人。　
　　　　Instead they are beginning to fear that Obama II will look much like Obama I: dignified, articulate, above-the-fray, cautious, constrained. Even the president’s success in forcing a reluctant Republican party to accept higher taxes on the rich did not persuade those who charge him with weakness. In The Washington Post, David Ignatius lamented that the president went “missing in action” on the fiscal-cliff negotiations – and failed to provide leadership. My colleague Martin Wolf puts the case for those who see the deal as a capitulation, arguing that Mr Obama “has achieved nothing of importance and given up the only card he had – the automatic expiry of the Bush tax cuts. In a game of chicken, he has swerved, again.”　
　　　　在奥巴马开始第二个总统任期之际，自由派反倒开始担心他的表现与第一个任期内没有多少不同——仍然是一个淡定、夸夸其谈、小心谨慎、自我克制的和事老。尽管奥巴马成功迫使共和党违背自身意愿、接受了对富人增税的方案，但仍然有人指责他过于软弱。大卫 伊格内修斯(David Ignatius)在《华盛顿邮报》(Washington Post)上哀叹道，奥巴马在财政悬崖谈判中一味“避战”，也未能发挥出领袖的作用。有些人认为，上周达成的协议意味着奥巴马向保守派投降了。我的同事马丁 沃尔夫(Martin Wolf)也认为：奥巴马“没有取得任何重大成果，还放弃了手上唯一可打的牌——即将自动失效的小布什时期减税政策。在这场懦夫博弈(game of chicken)中，奥巴马再一次选择了退让”。　
　　　　Elizabeth Drew, a much-respected Washington commentator, bemoans “Obama’s caution, his oft-displayed lack of stomach for a fight”. Even the president’s reaction to the massacre at Sandy Hook school has come under critical scrutiny. His speech was affecting, but still exquisitely tactful. At no point did Mr Obama directly take on the National Rifle Association.　
　　　　备受尊敬的《华盛顿邮报》评论员伊丽莎白 德鲁(Elizabeth Drew)为“奥巴马的谨慎和一贯的避战倾向”感到惋惜。就连他对桑迪 胡克(Sandy Hook)小学枪杀案的反应也受到了批评。有人说，总统针对案件发表的演讲十分感人，但仍不够尖锐，没有一句直接抨击美国步枪协会(NRA)的话。　
　　　　Many of Mr Obama’s liberal supporters yearn for a different sort of president: somebody more like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was FDR who, in the appropriately pugilistic setting of Madison Square Garden, gave a 1936 speech denouncing his political enemies. “They are unanimous in their hatred for me,” he roared, “and I welcome their hatred.”　
　　　　许多支持奥巴马的自由派希望他展现出另一种面貌，能够拿出富兰克林 德兰诺 罗斯福(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)当年那种魄力。1936年，罗斯福在麦迪逊广场花园(Madison Square Garden)发表演讲，给予自己的政敌沉重的打击。他的话掷地有声：“他们都恨我，这是他们的共同点。而我也欢迎他们恨我。”对待政敌，就要拿出这样的态度。　
　　　　It is impossible to imagine Mr Obama saying something that direct and brutal. Unlike the blue-blooded Roosevelt, Mr Obama’s life taught him to avoid confrontation. In his autobiography, the president wrote that as a young man he discovered that: “People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves . . . such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn’t seem angry all the time.”　
　　　　指望奥巴马能够说出罗斯福那样直截了当、不留情面的话是不可能的。与出身高贵的罗斯福不同，奥巴马的人生经验告诉他，要避免与他人发生冲突。奥巴马在自传中写到，他年轻时发现一件事：“只要你彬彬有礼、笑脸迎人、不搞突然袭击，别人就不会对你不满……当人们发现这个年轻的黑人小伙子很有礼貌、似乎也从不会生气时，都会感到喜出望外。”　
　　　　Mr Obama turned this personal insight into a political strategy and built his national political career as a conciliator – somebody who could bridge the gap between black and white Americans and between red and blue states. These personal differences help explain why Mr Obama could never be an FDR and “welcome” the hatred of his enemies.　
　　　　奥巴马将这种人生经验转化为了一种政治战略。他在从政生涯中始终扮演着“斡旋者”的角色，充当黑人和白人之间、共和党和民主党之间的桥梁。奥巴马永远都不可能成为另一个罗斯福、并“欢迎”敌人恨自己，部分原因就在于，他与罗斯福个性不同。　
　　　　But there are also more prosaic – and ultimately more important – political explanations. In the 1930s, Roosevelt had the benefit of working with massive Democratic majorities in Congress. He could afford to insult the Republicans and their backers. By contrast, Mr Obama only had majorities in both houses of Congress for the first two years of his presidency – and his party’s majority in the Senate was smaller and more vulnerable than those of either FDR at the height of the New Deal or Lyndon B. Johnson, when he was pushing through the Great Society reforms of the 1960s.　
　　　　还有一些别的政治原因，这些原因虽然更加平淡无奇，但最终是更重要的。上世纪30年代，罗斯福有一项优势，他所属的民主党占据了国会绝对多数议席，因此他可以承担攻击民主党人及其支持者的后果。奥巴马就不一样了，民主党仅在他当总统的头两年里占据着国会参众两院多数议席，即便在那两年，相比罗斯福新政(New Deal)和林登 B 约翰逊(Lyndon B. Johnson)上世纪60年代的“伟大社会”(Great Society)改革如火如荼展开之时，民主党在参议院中所占的多数优势更加微弱，也更容易被击败。　
　　　　Even if Mr Obama is now sorely tempted to make a few “sudden moves” and take on the Tea Party, all-out confrontation would not be an intelligent political strategy. The truth is that he needs Republican votes if he is to achieve any of the cherished liberal goals – from gun control to tax reform.　
　　　　即便如今发动几次“突然袭击”、与茶党(Tea Party)较量一番对奥巴马具有一种致命的诱惑，但全面的对抗将不是一种明智的政治策略。事实上，如果奥巴马想要实现任何自由派渴望实现的目标——从枪支管控到税收改革，他就必须获得共和党人的选票。　
　　　　In any case, the idea that Mr Obama is a jelly-spined conciliator would be greeted with incredulity by his political foes. Prominent conservative commentators see a completely different president. Charles Krauthammer credits Mr Obama with a “rout” of his opponents in the fiscal-cliff negotiations. Peggy Noonan complains that “he taunted the Republicans in Congress” and calls him “a uniquely polarising figure”.　
　　　　无论如何，如果说奥巴马是个“软骨头”、只会和稀泥，他的政敌会表示怀疑。那些著名的保守派评论员对奥巴马的看法与一般人迥异。查尔斯 克劳塞默(Charles Krauthammer)认为，奥巴马在财政悬崖谈判中打得对手“落荒而逃”。佩姬 努南(Peggy Noonan)不满地表示，“奥巴马在国会中对共和党人大加讥讽”，还说奥巴马“一心加剧两党的分化”。　
　　　　As for Mr Obama, he might be tempted to adopt what I think of as the BBC defence, which is to say: “If I am being criticised by both the left and the right, I must be getting it roughly right.”　
　　　　而对奥巴马而言，我想到了英国广播公司(BBC)的那句辩护词：“如果左派和右派都批评我，那么我一定做得还算不错。”奥巴马可能会想要用这句话来为自己辩护。　
　　　　The president should certainly take any solace he can get. America has avoided the fiscal cliff. But, in just a few weeks, it will bash into the debt ceiling. Changing the metaphor, unfortunately, does not alter the problem. The president may be, according to popular lore, the “most powerful man in the world”. But, when it comes to domestic politics, he is too often the helpless prisoner of a broken system.　
　　　　奥巴马当然应该寻求一切可以获得的慰藉。美国躲过一劫，没有跌下财政悬崖。但仅几周之后，美国将一头撞上债务上限的天花板。不幸的是，尽管“悬崖”变成了“天花板”，美国依然面临那个老问题。人们常说，美国总统是“世界上权力最大的人”。这么说或许没错。但在处理国内政治问题时，美国总统往往更像个囚徒，受困于一套失灵的体制。