Biden Up Next, Obama’s Aides Plot Comeback
奥巴马团队为走出低谷绞尽脑汁
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s campaign is working feverishly to restore its momentum after a lackluster debate performance last week, an effort that began with a conference call 10 minutes before the debate even ended and led to new advertisements, a rewritten stump speech, a carefully timed leak and a reversal of months-old strategy.
华盛顿——因为总统在上周的辩论中表现平平，奥巴马的竞选团队目前正努力奋战，试图重整旗鼓，他们在辩论结束之前十分钟就召开电话会议，随后又制作了新的竞选广告，重写了政治演讲稿，在精心策划后选择在恰当时机透露相关消息，并逆转了持续数月的策略。
Perhaps most important as the president’s team struggles to put his campaign back on track is a renewed effort to win the three remaining debates, starting with Thursday’s face-off between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan. Mr. Biden moved into a Delaware hotel on Sunday for three days of debate camp.
总统的团队正奋力将其竞选重新拉回正轨，其中最重要的举措或许是为赢得余下的三场辩论而重新做出的努力。周四，副总统小约瑟夫·R·拜登(Joseph R. Biden Jr.)将面对众议员保罗·D·瑞安(Paul D. Ryan)，打响首战。周日，拜登入住位于特拉华州的一个宾馆，开始进行持续三天的辩论准备工作。
Under the tutelage of David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist who is personally overseeing the preparations, Mr. Biden will be counseled on how to avoid Mr. Obama’s mistakes and even correct them with a more aggressive prosecution of the Republican ticket. Mr. Axelrod’s involvement highlights the stakes the Obama campaign places on the debate, and Mr. Biden has been reading “Young Guns,” the book co-written by Mr. Ryan, and practicing attack lines that Mr. Obama avoided.
奥巴马的首席策略师戴维·阿克塞尔罗德(David Axelrod)正亲自负责此次辩论的准备工作，在他的指导下，拜登将学习如何避免重蹈奥巴马的覆辙，甚至通过对共和党候选人更为言辞激烈的抨击，来纠正这些错误。阿克塞尔罗德的参与凸显出奥巴马竞选团队对此次辩论的重视程度，而拜登也一直在阅读由瑞安合作撰写的《少壮派》(Young Guns)一书，并练习使用为奥巴马所摒弃的那些针对共和党的攻击性言论。
The focus on Mr. Biden comes as the campaign tries to diagnose what went wrong in Denver and what to do about it. Advisers had seen two presidents during practice debates, one who had been listless and passive two nights before and another energetic and aggressive the next night. It turned out the former was the one who showed up in Denver. He kept looking down and was not using the lines they had practiced assailing Mitt Romney. His closing argument meandered.
随着奥巴马竞选团队努力寻找丹佛的辩论到底哪里出了错，以及应采取何种措施进行补救，他们逐渐将关注焦点转移到拜登的辩论上。顾问们在辩论彩排中看到了两个不同的总统，其中一个两天前还无精打采、消极被动，而接下来的一个晚上，他就成了另外一副模样，精力充沛、颇具攻击性。但结果，在丹佛出现的却是前一个总统。他不停地低下头，没有采用练习的那些词句来攻击米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)。他的总结发言也十分空洞。
For Mr. Obama, it was arguably the lowest point in his campaign for a second term, a setback that gave new momentum to his opponent. The campaign’s own focus groups and research indicated that he lost. Mr. Obama did not fully realize as he walked off the stage just how badly it had gone, but aides said he resolved to step up his game. “He doesn’t brood — he acts,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Whatever the concerns were about yesterday, he wakes up the next day ready to take it on again.”
对奥巴马来说，这算得上是其追求二次连任竞选过程中的最低谷，此次挫败反倒助其对手一臂之力。竞选团队的焦点小组和其开展的调查表明，这次奥巴马输了。走下台时，奥巴马并没有完全意识到自己刚才的表现有多么糟糕，然而助手称，总统已决意提升强度。“他不会沉浸在错误中——他会采取行动，”阿克塞尔罗德说。“不论过去发生了什么令人忧虑的状况，第二天醒来后，他会继续奋战。”
On the conference call convened by aides in Denver and Chicago even as the candidates were still on stage, none of the advisers fooled themselves into thinking it was anything but a disaster. Instead, they scrambled for ways to recover. They resolved to go after Mr. Romney with a post-debate assault on his truthfulness. Ad makers were ordered to work all night to produce an attack ad. And they would seize on Mr. Romney’s vow to cut financing for Big Bird.
在候选人还在辩论台上时，总统位于丹佛和芝加哥的助手便召开了电话会议，会议上，没有一个顾问自欺欺人，否认那场辩论是一场灾难。相反，他们绞尽脑汁，寻找补救办法。他们决定，在辩论后针对罗姆尼是否诚实一事发起攻击。他们要求竞选广告制作者连夜工作制造出一个攻击广告。他们还抓住罗姆尼誓言要减少对大鸟(Big Bird)的财政资助的讲话大做文章。
Mr. Obama has been helped by two subsequent events. A labor report on Friday showed that unemployment had dropped to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent, still high but back down to where it was when he took office. And his campaign privately spread the word that fund-raising had soared, giving him a bankroll for a comeback attempt.
接下来发生的两件事也帮助了奥巴马。周五发布的一份劳工报告显示，美国国内失业率已经从8.1%降至7.8%，尽管这一数值仍较高，但已回归到奥巴马刚刚上任时的水平。而且奥巴马的竞选团队还私下里透露消息，称竞选筹款已大幅上升，这样就给奥巴马竞选提供了卷土重来的资金保障。
But the debate remains a singular event in the life of the campaign, watched by more than 67 million people — a larger audience than for any of Mr. Obama’s 2008 debates, either of his nominating conventions or any of his State of the Union addresses.
然而，在奥巴马竞选过程中，此次辩论仍然十分特殊，共有超过6700万人观看——其观众人数超过了奥巴马在2008年参加的所有辩论、他在两次提名大会的讲话，以及他所做的任何一次国情咨文演说。
Thursday’s debate between Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan may not draw quite the same audience, but both sides view it as critical and are preparing for a contentious clash.
拜登和瑞安本周四的辩论也许不会吸引同样数量的观众，但双方阵营均认为辩论至关重要，并且都在在为激烈的对抗做准备。
In rehearsals, Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who is playing Mr. Ryan, has mimicked what he considered the Republican’s staccato speaking style and penchant for slashing arguments wrapped in a smile. “I expect the vice president to come at me like a cannonball,” Mr. Ryan told The Weekly Standard.
演练的时候，马里兰州众议员、民主党人克里斯·范霍伦(Chris Van Hollen)扮演瑞安。他认为瑞安的讲话风格一字一顿，喜欢在一串激烈的争论之后报以微笑，他对这些都加以了模仿。瑞安对《旗帜周刊》(The Weekly Standard)说，“我预计副总统会像炮弹一样对我进行猛攻。”
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts was recruited to play Mr. Romney. The preparation team was kept small. The most important players were Mr. Axelrod; David Plouffe, the president’s senior adviser; and Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director.
马萨诸塞州参议员约翰·克里(John Kerry)之前被请来扮演罗姆尼，辩论准备团队的人数也被维持在一个较小的规模，其最重要的人员包括阿克塞尔罗德、奥巴马的高级顾问戴维·普洛夫(David Plouffe)，以及前白宫通讯联络主任安妮塔·邓恩(Anita Dunn)。
By the time Mr. Obama retreated to Nevada for a final couple days of practice, the debate prep team was getting by on as little as three hours of sleep a night as they crafted answers and attack lines. Mr. Kerry played a range of Mr. Romneys — aggressive, laid back, hard-edge conservative — and got in the president’s face, according to people in the room. Mr. Obama’s alternating performances left aides walking off Air Force One in Denver looking visibly worried.
当奥巴马窝在内华达州进行最后几天练习的时候，辩论准备团队通过每天晚上只睡三个小时来修改答案、起草攻击性词句。克里扮演了各种风格的罗姆尼：咄咄逼人的、轻松闲适的、持强硬保守主义观点的。据当时在场的人员称，克里惹恼了奥巴马。奥巴马的不稳定表现，使得助理们在丹佛走下空军一号时显得忧心忡忡。
On stage, Mr. Obama seemed thrown off as Mr. Romney emphasized elements of his agenda that seemed more moderate and surprised that the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, did not pose more pointed questions. The president’s team had decided in advance not to raise Mr. Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, aides said, but Mr. Obama held back on other attack lines they had intended to use. The base wanted him “to gut Romney,” one adviser said, but swing voters hate that and he was seeking a balance. Few thought he found it.
在辩论台上，奥巴马看起来因为罗姆尼强调了自己的议题中一些较为温和的因素而感到慌乱，他似乎还因为来自PBS的主持人吉姆·莱勒(Jim Lehrer)没有提出更多尖锐问题而感到惊讶。助理们称，奥巴马的团队事先决定不提罗姆尼在贝恩资本(Bain Capital)的经历，但奥巴马本人没有采用他们意欲使用的其他一些攻击性言论。一位助理说，基础选民期望奥巴马“屠戮罗姆尼”，但摇摆选民痛恨这种做法，因此他当时试图寻求平衡。但很少有人认为他做到了这一点。
During the damage-control conference call, they reversed a longstanding strategic decision; at the start of the campaign they had decided to attack Mr. Romney as a committed conservative rather than a flip-flopper, but now they decided to use his debate statements to argue that he was reinventing himself.
在止损电话会议上，助理们逆转了长期以来的一项战略决策。竞选伊始，他们决定将罗姆尼视作坚定的保守主义者来攻击，而不是一颗墙头草。但现在，他们决定利用罗姆尼的辩论言论来辩论，他正在改头换面。
Mr. Obama walked off the stage thinking he at least had gotten in some of his points. “This was a terrific debate,” he said in the closing minutes.
奥巴马走下讲台的时候认为自己至少传达出了一些观点。总结发言的时候，他说，“这是一场很棒的辩论。”
“He knew that Romney had had a decent night as well,” Mr. Axelrod said later. “But it’s very hard when you’re standing there. It’s hard when you’re up there to judge it completely.”
阿克塞尔罗德后来说，“他也知道罗姆尼表现不错。但是，站在台上的时候是非常艰难的，当事人很难做出全面判断。”
Mr. Obama’s advisers were relieved that at least there was no single memorable moment to be used against Mr. Obama in an ad. And they took some solace from focus groups showing that he broke even with Mr. Romney on substance even if he lost over all.
让顾问们感到宽慰的是，辩论中至少没有任何令人印象深刻的一幕可以被用在广告里攻击奥巴马。 尽管总体而言奥巴马输了，但来自焦点小组的数据显示，他与罗姆尼在基本内容方面上不相上下，这也让顾问们得到了某种安慰。
By morning, the Democrats had an ad criticizing Mr. Romney. They had scheduled a morning rally and were surprised that the Romney team had not. As they watched Twitter and some of the entertainment shows on television, they noticed a lot of attention on Mr. Romney’s pledge to cut money for public broadcasting, so they added a line to Mr. Obama’s speech and dispatched a volunteer in a Big Bird costume to a Romney event.
第二天早晨，民主党人批评罗姆尼的广告面世了。他们安排了一场早间集会，并对罗姆尼团队没有这样安排感到惊讶。当他们观察Twitter和一些电视娱乐节目的时候，注意到许多关注放在了罗姆尼削减公共广播电视台经费的承诺上，因此他们在奥巴马的演讲中加了一句话，并且派了一名志愿者打扮成大鸟出现在罗姆尼的一场活动上。
纽约时报
2012-10-09
纽约时报
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