評(píng)論
打印
Feel for Joe Biden. If you too had spent half a century coveting a job, you might be reluctant to give it up.
為喬·拜登感到惋惜。如果你也花了半個(gè)世紀(jì)的時(shí)間渴望獲得一份工作，你可能不愿意放棄它。
When the octogenarian turned in the most disastrous debate performance in modern times on June 27th, alarmed fellow Democrats began agitating for him to gracefully withdraw from his re-election campaign.
6月27日，這位八十多歲的老人在辯論中表現(xiàn)得極為糟糕，驚慌失措的民主黨同僚開始敦促他體面地退出連任競(jìng)選。
The confused guy who appeared on stage seemed in no state to defeat Donald Trump in November, let alone govern the country into 2029. But Mr Biden is nothing if not stubborn.
這位在舞臺(tái)上表現(xiàn)混亂的家伙似乎無法在11月?lián)魯√萍{德·特朗普，更不用說在2029年治理國家了。但拜登先生非常固執(zhí)。
His campaign staff spent the week following the debacle trying to contain the fallout, urging elected Democrats not to go public with their calls for the president to stand aside.
他的競(jìng)選團(tuán)隊(duì)在這次慘敗后的一周內(nèi)試圖控制后果，敦促當(dāng)選的民主黨人不要公開呼吁總統(tǒng)下臺(tái)。
The Biden campaign then mounted a counteroffensive against those critics. "I'm not going anywhere," the candidate announced. These efforts have had an impact.
拜登競(jìng)選團(tuán)隊(duì)隨后對(duì)這些批評(píng)者發(fā)起了反攻。“我哪兒也不去，”候選人宣布。這些努力產(chǎn)生了影響。
By mid-week prediction markets were giving Mr Biden even odds of staying in the race—double his chance of survival the previous week.
到本周中旬，預(yù)測(cè)市場(chǎng)認(rèn)為拜登先生繼續(xù)參選的幾率均等，比前一周翻了一番。
Nevertheless, the trickle of Democratic lawmakers openly urging the president to abandon his campaign has not stopped:
盡管如此，民主黨議員公開敦促總統(tǒng)放棄競(jìng)選的呼聲仍未停止：
this week Michael Bennet and Peter Welch became the first Senate Democrats to say that Mr Biden could not defeat Mr Trump.
本周，麥克·班尼和彼得·韋爾奇是第一批表示拜登無法擊敗特朗普的參議院民主黨人。
Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker and close ally of the president, implied that he should think again about his candidacy, saying in an interview on MSNBC that "time is running short".
前眾議院議長(zhǎng)、總統(tǒng)的親密盟友南希·佩洛西暗示，拜登應(yīng)該重新考慮自己的候選資格，她在接受MSNBC采訪時(shí)表示“時(shí)間不多了”。
George Clooney, an actor and donor, also disavowed Mr Biden and made disparaging remarks about his ability to do the job.
演員兼捐助者喬治·克魯尼也否認(rèn)了拜登，并對(duì)他勝任總統(tǒng)工作的能力發(fā)表了貶損言論。
If Mr Biden faces down the rebels in his party, it would be a strange victory, achieved not by convincing his fellow Democrats that he has a good chance of beating Mr Trump, but by insisting he will not abandon power no matter how hard they push him.
如果拜登挫敗黨內(nèi)叛亂分子，那將是一場(chǎng)奇怪的勝利，不是通過說服民主黨同僚他有很大機(jī)會(huì)擊敗特朗普，而是通過堅(jiān)持無論他們?nèi)绾伪破龋疾粫?huì)放棄權(quán)力。
Because Mr Biden controls almost all of the delegates needed to secure the party's formal nomination in August, little can be done to force him out. And Mr Biden insists he will not budge.
由于拜登控制著確保8月獲得黨內(nèi)正式提名所需的幾乎所有代表，因此幾乎沒有辦法迫使他下臺(tái)。拜登堅(jiān)稱他不會(huì)讓步。
"I am firmly committed to staying in the race, to running this race to the end," said a letter sent in his name to congressional Democrats and published on July 8th.
“我堅(jiān)定地致力于繼續(xù)競(jìng)選，堅(jiān)持到底，”一封以他的名義寄給國會(huì)民主黨人的信中寫道，這封信于7月8日公布。
In it he claimed that because he had won a competitive primary it would be anti-democratic for him not to be the party's nominee.
在信中，他聲稱，由于他贏得了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的初選，因此如果他不成為民主黨的候選人，那將是反民主的。
"How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our party?" he wrote.
“如果我們?cè)诿裰鼽h內(nèi)忽視民主，我們?cè)趺茨艽韲业拿裰髂兀俊彼麑懙馈?/p>
In truth, the party treated the primary as a coronation, placing the president alone on the ballot in some states. No serious candidates challenged him.
事實(shí)上，民主黨將初選視為加冕儀式，在一些州，總統(tǒng)獨(dú)自出現(xiàn)在選票上。沒有認(rèn)真的候選人挑戰(zhàn)他。
Although few elected Democrats privately express confidence in Mr Biden, many have settled into learned helplessness.
雖然很少有當(dāng)選的民主黨人私下表示對(duì)拜登有信心，但許多人已經(jīng)陷入了習(xí)得性無助。
"The matter is settled," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a congresswoman, declared.
“事情已經(jīng)解決了，”國會(huì)議員亞歷山德里婭·奧卡西奧-科爾特斯宣稱。
Though nine Democrats in the House of Representatives have publicly called for the president to stand aside, and many more have made statements expressing concern, Mr Biden has decided that he has an almost divine right to remain president.
盡管眾議院有9名民主黨人公開呼吁總統(tǒng)退位，還有更多人發(fā)表聲明表示擔(dān)憂，但拜登已經(jīng)決定，他幾乎天生就有權(quán)繼續(xù)擔(dān)任總統(tǒng)。
"If the Lord Almighty came out and said, 'Joe, get out of the race,' I would get out of the race," the president said in a closely watched interview on July 7th. But "the Lord Almighty is not coming down."
“如果上帝站出來對(duì)我說，‘喬，退出競(jìng)選’，我就會(huì)退出競(jìng)選，”總統(tǒng)在7月7日一次備受關(guān)注的采訪中說道。但“上帝不會(huì)降臨。”
To understand what is happening, the best guide is not speculation about what Jill Biden or Barack Obama might be thinking, but game theory.
要了解正在發(fā)生的事情，最好的指南不是猜測(cè)吉爾·拜登或巴拉克·奧巴馬可能在想什么，而是博弈論。
The objective function, or goal, of Democrats is to minimise the chance of Mr Trump returning to the White House.
民主黨的目標(biāo)是盡量減少特朗普重返白宮的機(jī)會(huì)。
